On July 23 news, on Wednesday local time, Tesla CEO Elon Musk expressed his “support for the use of nuclear energy” when speaking at the conference .
Musk said: “I really think it is possible to produce very, very safe nuclear energy.”
” I’m talking about nuclear fission. There is no need for nuclear fusion .” Musk added.
Nuclear fission is the way conventional nuclear reactors use nuclear energy. In a nuclear fission reaction, larger atoms collide with each other and split into smaller atoms, thereby releasing energy.
Nuclear fusion is the opposite process of nuclear fission. In nuclear fusion, smaller atoms collide together and combine into heavier atoms, releasing energy. The process by which the sun produces energy is nuclear fusion.
“There is a huge fusion reactor in the sky, called the sun. It appears above us every day,” Musk said.
Some people predict that nuclear fusion is a safer way to produce nuclear energy. The main reason is that the radioactive waste produced by nuclear fission will have radiation for a long time, and nuclear fusion will not produce continuous radioactive nuclear waste .
The problem is that under the current scientific and technological conditions, nuclear fusion consumes all the energy produced to maintain the reaction process, and there is no excess energy to drive other equipment. Several companies are working to commercialize nuclear fusion energy, and so far have not achieved success.
On Wednesday, Musk did not elaborate on how to make nuclear power plants “extremely safe.” But Musk has openly supported the use of nuclear energy by humans for many years.
“We should build more nuclear power plants,” Musk said in an interview in 2007. “I think this is a better way to generate electricity than coal-fired power plants or natural gas power plants.”
According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, currently about 20% of the U.S. energy comes from nuclear energy .
Over the years, conventional nuclear energy technologies that utilize nuclear fission reactions have been continuously developed and improved. For example, Microsoft founder Bill Gates (Bill Gates) established an advanced nuclear energy company TerraPower (TerraPower) to innovate traditional power generation technology.
Nevertheless, there are still strong opposition to the use of nuclear energy.
Those who oppose nuclear energy say that despite technological innovation, nuclear energy still has related risks. A better solution is to concentrate on the development of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy.
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