Visualizing Environmental Science

430 CHAPTER 17 Nonrenewable Energy Resources

desert around the burning oil wells. In 2001 Kuwait

began a massive remediation project to clean up its

oil-contaminated desert. Progress is slow, and it may take

a century or more for the area to completely recover.

1. Where are oil and natural gas reserves most
   abundant?


2. What are three environmental problems
   associated with using oil and natural gas
   as energy resources?

idled boats, and loss of many service jobs. Daily life for
thousands was disrupted and uncertain.

Earth’s Largest Oil Spill While the Exxon Valdez and
Deepwater Horizon oil spills greatly damaged economic,
environmental, and human health, they are not the
largest spills worldwide (ˆ}ÕÀiʣǰ££v, previous page).
The world’s most massive oil spill in recent history oc-
curred in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War, when about
6 million barrels (250 million gals) of crude oil were
deliberately dumped into the Persian Gulf. Many oil
wells were set on fire, and lakes of oil spilled into the

Nuclear Energy

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Define nuclear energy and describe a typical
   nuclear power reactor.


2. Discuss the pros and cons of electric power
   produced by nuclear energy versus coal.


3. Describe safety issues associated with nuclear
   power plants and risks associated with the
   storage of radioactive wastes.

A

ll atoms are composed of positively charged
protons, negatively charged electrons, and
electrically neutral neutrons (ˆ}ÕÀiʣǰ£Ó).
Protons and neutrons, which have approxi-
mately the same mass, are clustered in the center of an
atom, making up its nucleus. Electrons, which possess
little mass compared to protons and neutrons, orbit the
nucleus in distinct regions.
As a way to obtain energy, nuclear processes are fun-
damentally different from the combustion that produces
energy from fossil fuels. Combustion is a chemical reac-
tion. In chemical reactions, atoms of one element do not
change into atoms of another element, nor does any of
their mass (matter) change into energy. The energy re-
leased in chemical reactions comes from changes in the
chemical bonds that hold together the atoms. Chemical
bonds are associations between electrons, and chemical
reactions involve the rearrangement of electrons.

Nuclear energy involves changes in the nuclei of

atoms; small amounts of matter

from the nucleus are converted

into large amounts of energy. Nu-

clear reactions produce 100,000

times more energy per atom than

is available from a chemical bond between two atoms.

nuclear energy

The energy released

by nuclear fission or

fusion.

Nucleus

Neutron

Proton

̜“ˆVÊÃÌÀÕVÌÕÀiÊUʈ}ÕÀiʣǰ£ÓÊ

An atom contains a nucleus made of protons and neutrons.

Circling the nucleus is a “cloud” of electrons.