Why is radioactivity important in the production of nuclear energy?

Answer 1

The neutron is at the heart of this. A free neutron has a half-life of around 10 minutes.

But the neutron ejected from an atom will be travelling at high (very high) speed, and will escape our experimental space quite soon.

Enter from stage left, the moderator, a substance that causes the neutron to have such a high probability of impact that it will bounce round and thus the neutron's velocity is effectively reduced.

And in so doing, it will impact on other fuel atoms (for it now has more time to interact) and induce more neutrons to be emitted.

[Consider an atom with the component bits, wandering round in their probabilistic paths. An intruder from outside, if moving FAST, will have a certain probability of interacting with the bits of the atom. However, the same intruder, if moving slowly, will have a much greater probability if an interaction. ]

Strictly, the above refers to a SLOW reactor rather than a Fast one or a Breeder, but sufficient unto the day ... ... .

But the above only looks at the heat source. The heat generated by the radioactive decay is captured in a heat exchanger fluid, and this fluid in turn heats water to generate steam and hence electric power by the usual steam turbines.

The heat exchanger fluid is commonly sodium liquid, but other materials such as lead are also used.

Answer 2

Radioactivity is important in the production of nuclear energy because it allows for the controlled release of energy through nuclear reactions, which can generate large amounts of heat to produce electricity. Nuclear reactors use radioactive materials such as uranium or plutonium to sustain a chain reaction that produces heat for electricity generation.

Answer 3

one reason is the radioactivity can tell us the approximate age of rock layers.