Explore the massive energy released by Uranium-235 fission and evaluate the cost-benefit ratio of generating carbon-free electricity versus storing long-term nuclear waste.
The Millstone Nuclear Power Station is the only operational nuclear power plant in Connecticut. It generates over 40% of the state's electricity.
Unlike fossil fuel plants (coal, natural gas) that burn chemical bonds, Millstone relies on Nuclear Fission. It uses slow-moving neutrons to split heavy Uranium-235 atoms, releasing immense amounts of heat to boil water and turn turbines.
A slow-moving neutron strikes a fissile Uranium-235 nucleus in the reactor core. It temporarily absorbs the neutron, becoming highly unstable Uranium-236. Almost instantly, it violently splits into two lighter radioactive nuclei (such as Barium-144 and Krypton-89) and releases 3 fast neutrons.
This splitting releases a massive burst of energy due to a "mass defect" (a tiny fraction of mass is converted directly to energy via E=mc²). The 3 ejected neutrons can go on to strike other U-235 atoms, creating a controlled chain reaction.
To understand why Millstone is so powerful, we must compare the energy released by splitting a nucleus to the energy released by breaking/forming electron bonds in a chemical reaction (like burning coal).
~4 eV
Energy per atom
~200,000,000 eV
(200 MeV) Energy per atom
Engineers and policymakers must perform a cost-benefit analysis when deciding how to generate grid electricity.