"1. Nuclear Power Generation
The burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas) has been used to generate electricity since before the turn of the twentieth century. The first U.S. nuclear power plant was built in 1957 at Shippingport, Pennsylvania. Since then, the use of nuclear-generated electricity has grown substantially in the United States.
The U.S. nuclear power industry achieved its fourth consecutive year of record power generation levels during 2002. Total nuclear output was 780.1 billion kilowatt hours, about 1.5 percent above the previous record of 768.8 billion kilowatt hours set in 2001. This represents continued growth in an industry. The record was achieved despite the fact that the total number of commercial reactors has dropped from 111 reactors (in 1990) to 104 reactors now. The record was attained through increased use of existing nuclear capacity.

Nuclear generation surpassed 700 billion kilowatt hours for the fourth consecutive year. The nuclear industry generated 71.1 billion kilowatt hours in January 2002, the highest level for the U.S. nuclear power industry ever.
Nuclear power plants provide about 17 % of the world's electricity. Some countries depend more on nuclear power for electricity than others. For example in France about 75 % of the electricity is generated from nuclear power. There are more than 400 nuclear power plants around the world, with more than 100 in the United States.
The United States has 98.2 million kilowatts of nuclear capacity, more than any other nation in the world. France ranks second, third is Japan, and fourth is Germany. International growth in commercial nuclear power has slowed, but several countries have ambitious nuclear construction programs. While no nuclear reactors have been ordered in the United States since 1978, China, India, Russia, and South Korea and other countries have brought new reactors into service during the current century.

2. How a nuclear power plant works?
Nuclear power plants rely on the process of nuclear fission. In this process, the nucleus of a heavy element, such as uranium, splits when bombarded by a free neutron in a nuclear reactor. The fission process for uranium atoms yields two smaller atoms, one to three free neutrons, plus an amount of energy. Because more free neutrons are released from a uranium fission event than are required to initiate the event, the reaction can become self sustaining. It is called a chain reaction. If this “chain reaction” can be controlled, the energy released can be used to boil water, produce steam and drive a turbine that generates electricity. The result of it is producing a tremendous amount of energy."

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