Nuclear energy can be created by nature or it can be duplicated by man.

Nuclear Energy is basically energy that escapes during a process called fission. This energy, as others, give off heat and/or radiation.
Fission is when a slow neutron rams into the nucleus of an atom of uranium-235, splitting the nucleus in to two parts. Energy than escapes along with some more neutrons,(note that these neutrons are fast when they are released.) Those neutrons will slow down because of the moderator inside the reactor. This moderator may be graphite, heavy water, or light water. The now slowed neutrons ram into more nuclei and more energy is released.(again along with more fast neutrons.) This goes on until the uranium-235 is complete. This is called a chain-reaction.
When man creates a nuclear reaction they use small uranium dioxide pellets. 8 of these small pellets can generate electricity for one house for one whole year. These pellets are placed into tubes called a zircaloy tube. Many of these tubes are placed together- this is called a fuel bundle. This fuel bundle usually has a mass of 24 kg. Over half of this mass is all the pellets. 19 kg of the mass of a CANDU fuel bundle
is all the uranium pellets.
This CANDU fuel bundle is placed into a reactor. The fission process begins, and all the heat that comes from this reaction transports itself to the water in the boiler. The water begins to steam, and the steam pressure makes the turbines turn, the turbines drive the generator, which produces electricity to travel through the power lines.
After one full bundle is used up it must be deposed. In this case it could be very dangerous because these bundles would still contain some radiation. Special machines take all these finished fuel bundles to store them either in pools or underground. When the fuel bundles are placed in these large pools the cool water shields the radio-active activity that is still occurring by cooling the bundle down. When the fuel bundles have been sitting in the huge pools for a little over five years they would be transferred to large canisters made out of thick concrete. As I mentioned earlier, these CANDU fuel bundles could also be stored under-ground. Special rooms are made there at about 500-1000 metres below. When each room is filled it would be sealed with a special substance,(most likely with clay) so that radio-active material can not escape. In order to get the fuel waste down to the rooms special machines would take them down a shaft, then through a tunnel, and placed into the room.
Uranium may be just a little expensive but the use is a lot better than other substances.(for example-coal.) One important reason why it is better to use uranium rather than coal is because if you use coal it causes a lot of pollution. Uranium does not. Another reason is because uranium is stronger. What I mean by that is, that using one fuel bundle, it produces around the same amount electricity as about 400 tons of coal.
Comparing uranium with oil has a big difference too. One uranium fuel bundle = to about 59,450 gallons of oil (270,250 litres).
Both oil and coal cause a lot of pollution which leads to acid rain and such.

An atom is the smallest partical in this universe that retains the physical and chemical properties of each of the one hundred and sixteen elements.They are composed of three main particals, protons, neutrons and electrons, protons and neutrons form the center, or nucleus, of the atom, the electrons orbit about this nucleus at close to the speed of light. These electrons orbit around the nuecules in cirtian energy levals (or shells) which can hold only a set amount of electrons, the first level holding 2, the second 8 and so on, these levels also contain sub-levels. An element whose atom has a full energy leval, such as helium, is much more stable than an element whose atom has “extra” electons. Both the protons and the electrons carry an electric charge, called an elementry charge (.00000000000000000016 coulombs), the proton carries a positive charge and the electon a negitive charge, the neutron, however, carries no charge whatsoever (hence the name neutron, that is neutral). The charges of the electrons and protons in an atom are balaced out as long as the number of protons equals the number of electons, this is true of the natural state of atoms in this world. This can be changed and the result is an ion, which can carry a positive or a negitive charge, either by an excess of electrons or a insuficent amount.
Every atom of each kind of element has a cirten number of electrons corasponding with an equal amount of protons (the amount of neutrons can vary within elements, creating different isotopes), the number of electrons in an atom is defied as the atomic number, which also determines the type of element. Electrons function in yet another inportant aspect of atoms, that is, bonding. A bond occers between two or more atoms that either share certian qualities, or totaly differ in composition. There are three different kinds of bonds, a covalent bond, an ionic bond, and quite similer to an ionic bond, a metalic bond.
An ionic bond is created when mutiple atoms tranfer electrons between each other in order to fill or empty uncomplete energy levals, and thus become oppesetly charged ions which are then attracted to each other.
A covalent bond happens between many atoms who both need extra electrons in order to complete a uncomplete energy level, and so they “share” electrons with each other. This manely happens between like atoms, that is, atoms from the same element, and this results in a crystal, a good example of this would be the silicon crystal.
A metallic bond is formed when two atoms from the metallic elements combine to form a larger substance or alloy, This bond is similer to an ionic bond for in the same way electrons are seperaited from their parent atoms, forming positive and negitive ions. Yet these electrons are shared between the atoms and are able to move freely through the solid, enabling such charecteristics as electrisity and thermal conduction as well as mallubility.
The outer electrons locaited in an energy field are called valance electrons, and it is these electrons that determian the stability as well as the conductivity (ability to conduct electrisity and heat) of the element. Electrisity is passed through a conductor by loose electrons becoming free from it’s parent atom and passing through to the next atom, replacing a hole created by another freed electron. In this way the electrons “jump” from atom to atom, creating a flow of electrons, the magnatude of this flow is called current. The electrons released from the energy field of it’s nucleus are set in motion by an initial “pressure” force called voltage. In a metallic bond these valance electrons are very loosely bond to their parent atoms so that even a small electric field is enough to seperate them. This is the opposet with insulators (such as polymers) for their bonds are stonger and thus less reactive, therfore they are not very good conducters of both electrisity or heat, and require a large amount of voltage (< 3 eV) to free a electron.