What kind of Radio Activity is going on in Japan? What is it caused by? Uranium?

Question:

Why isn't the radiation been taken care of quickly? Is it true that the radiation will affect asia ans america?

Answer:

The fuel in a nuclear power station is uranium. The uranium fuel is contained in sealed cans in the core of the reactor. The nucleus of a uranium atom is unstable and can split in two. Energy i s released when this happens. We call this process nuclear fission. Because there are lots of uranium atoms in the core, it becomes very hot.

The thermal energy of the core is taking away by a fluid (called the 'coolant') that is pumped through the core. The coolant is very hot when it leaves the core. It flows through a pipe to a 'heat exchanger', then back to the reactor core. The thermal energy of the coolant is used to turn water into steam in the heat exchanger. This steam drives turbines which turn electricity generators.

People use uranium because much more energy is release per kilogram than from a fossil fuel (coal, oil, gas) so it is more sustainable and less damaging to the environment. However, you need to store the radioactive waste for many years - thousands of years. They were thinking about burying it but people might have lost track of where they have buried the waste. It would be quite a shock to dig it up accidentally!

What's happened in Japan is that when the earthquake happened, it damaged many things in the power station including what was needed to keep the uranium at the right temperature. The roof was also damaged so the radioactive energy has risen into the atmosphere. They say it can travel because it mixes in with the clouds, and when it rains it goes with it. It might affect America but it's probably unlikely. It is important not to breathe it in because it damages your cells and mutates them. If the mutated cells split and reproduce more then it could cause a cancer lump. This is why they have those special mask things to protect them selves.

Phew! :P Fingers are worn out now. I wouldn't worry though- radiation is all around us, in fact right in the ground below us there is radiation.