The United States is the world’s largest producer of nuclear power. In 2014, it generated 798.6 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity. France is the second largest producer (418 billion kWh), followed by Russia (169.1 billion kWh), South Korea (149.2 billion kWh), China (123.8 billion kWh), and Canada (98.6 billion kWh).

All power plants heat water to produce steam, which turns a generator to generate electricity.

In nuclear power stations, that steam is made by the heat generated from nuclear fission: when an atom is split, it releases energy in the form of heat.

Uranium is used as fuel because it breaks apart easily when it collides with a neutron. Once that happens, the neutrons from the uranium collide with its other atoms, prompting a chain reaction.

In a nuclear generator, this chain reaction is controlled by special rods that absorb excess neutrons harmlessly. These control rods are placed next to the fuel rods, which contain uranium fuel pellets. Over 200 of these rods are grouped into  a fuel assembly.When the engineers want to slow down the process, they lower more control rods into the assembly. When they want more heat, they raise the rods.

Advantages

Unlike fossil fuels, nuclear plants emit steam therefore do not emit greenhouse gasses or contribute to climate change.

They create .5 jobs for every megawatt hour (mWh) of electricity produced. That compares to .19 jobs in coal, .05 jobs in gas-fired plants, and .05 in wind power. The only source that creates more jobs/mWh is solar photovoltaic, at 1.06 jobs/mWh.

For decades, nuclear power has had cheaper operating costs compared with coal and natural gas.operating costs. Roughly 68% of the cost of coal and, 25% the cost of natural gas.

Concernsregarding  global warming inhibited new construction of coal-fired plants. As a result, from 1992 to 2005, some 270,000 MWe of new gas-fired plants were built. At the time, gas plants seemed to have the lowest investment risk. As a result, only 14,000 MWe of new nuclear and coal-fired capacity came online. This drove up natural gas prices, and forced large industrial users offshore and pushing gas-fired electricity costs towards 10 cents/kWh.

Disadvantages

1. Accident

 Due to the radioactivity of nuclear, there is the potential for radioactive material to be released as a plume into the environment as a result of an accident. Radioactive particles can be inhaled or ingested by people and animals, or deposited on the ground. These particles are composed of unstable atoms that emit excess radiation until they become stable. In low doses, radiation is harmless, but after a nuclear meltdown, the large doses destroy living cells and can cause mutations, illness, and death.

The potential impact of a nuclear meltdown can be catastrophic, as seen in Chernobyl and Fukushima. Although the likelihood is rare.

2. Disposal of nuclear waste. Low-level waste comes from contact with the nuclear fuel in day-to-day operations. It is disposed of on-site or it is sent to a low-level waste facility in one of 37 states.(Source: “Low-Level Waste,” U.S Nuclear Regulatory Commission)

High-level waste consists of spent fuel and takes hundreds of thousands of years to deactivate. Currently, 70,000 tons of this fuel is stored at the power plants themselves.