What is actually Uranium?

Since there are a lot of talking about the nuclear and right now, as we go further into this kind of topic, so, one will think, what actually Uranium? So, there are some interesting part of Uranium for nuclear reactor that can be discussed with.

Well, uranium is a metal, like any other metal which is the heaviest occuring element on earth and occurs in many isotopes, like 16 isotopes. Before even the 20's era, uranium was not even has a high value in market, which means uranium still not highly demanded by the industries back in the time. Then until the last fifty years it was produced only as a by product and generally, for other essential purposes like nuclear power plant. Uranium was discovered by Martin Heinrich Klaproth in Germany in 1789. Uranium was the first element that was found to be fissile.
 
Like any other internal combustion engine, it uses gasoline or diesel as the sole fuel, which in nuclear power plant, Uranium is the sole fuel of the nuclear reactor, to generate energy which will be transfered to the turbine to generate electricity. About 1 kilogram of uranium-235 theoretically could produce about ~80 TERAjoules of energy, which is equivalent to the energy that could be produced by 3000 tonnes of coal! Since Malaysia is using coal as one of the main materials to generate electricity, imagine how nuclear can contribute a lot of energy enough to supply electricity to us about 50 years, 100 years? =)
    
Furthermore, with the high rate of fission, it can produce a lot of energy which is enough to really generate the electricity. If the fuel of uranium is sized about small pencil can produce the same amount of energy like 3000 tonnes of coal, this definitely means the rate of efficiency is good. But all the good things, no matter how it is good, there is must be some kind on disadvantage about it. Nuclear explosions produce radiation. The nuclear radiation harms the cells of the body which can make people sick or even kill them. Illness can strike people years after their exposure to nuclear radiation.
 
But some people have take this characteristics of uranium as an advantage to create the nuclear bomb. This is why many people are afraid once they hear about nuclear - NUCLEAR BOMB. The main different between nuclear reactor and nuclear bomb is that nuclear reactor is the generate energy and therefore electricity so that people can use it for daily purposes, wheres nuclear bomb is definitely for destruction. People always have any kind of ideas to misuse anything or everything that actually for other purposes. 

This is why we come with this blog to really open many people's eyes so that we see this type of energy source is not the kind that they are thinking about right now, mostly. This is one of the solution to really help the environment. With the global warming is highly occurring now a days, with nuclear, we definitely can contribute in the reduction of global warming. So, come on, we think about it and really push for nuclear in Malaysia. Go nuclear for Malaysia.