These are mostly challenges of outdated nuclear technology. The newer technology has solved a lot of these problem. The latest designs of nuclear power plants can actually use the nuclear waste from the older nuclear plants.

Humanity’s rejection of Nuclear power was a massive mistake, and the environment has payed dearly for it as we continue to rely on fossil fuels for our electricity

I like how this is still basically a giant, super-high-tech steam engine.

I love the protester's sign that says "could you not?"

Ayyyyyyy...... Fallout reference

They completely ignored the fact that the "waste" Plutonium-239 produced from the transmutation of Uranium-238 in the nuclear fuel rods can be filtered out and used in fast breeder reactors as an energy source. There are several of these in the world currently. In addition fast breeder reactors don't need moderators to slow down neutrons and the fuel is self-sustaining in a sense because the neutrons released from the fission of Pu-239 can be used to transmute U-238 into Pu-239 again.

we have to remember, that there are hundreds of different types of reactors, and hundreds of different types being designed. some create waste that can be used in a bomb, and some make relatively safe and little waste. some can blow up, and some are much more modern. there are also a variety of fuel sources, from different elements. I just want to point out that nuclear power is NOT one thing. it's a technique, with tremendous potential, but with challenges just waiting to be solved.

Just build thorium salt reactor. Can't be used as weapons, safer and thorium is cheaper... Just again the construction costs.

My stance in nuclear energy is this: I believe in Nuclear Energy but I don't believe in people

As a future nuclear engineer, I give this mostly a B+ on facts, which is actually a cut above the rest of internet videos on nuclear power :D Couple of minor physics details were off (it isn't that water doesn't slow down neutrons enough, it is that it absorbs to many that we need enrichment!) One of the things missing, and this is hard to do with a primer like this, are other reactor types. See the one mention in the video is one of dozens or ways to do nuclear. It happens to be one of the most popular designs, but not the only design and many competing designs can resist meltdown dangers, recycle spent fuel, ect ect. Basically, most of the downsides could be engineered away if we had the desire to. I know that is what I am in school for!

This is most insane explanation of such a complicated topic. I wish I had seen this in my high school.. Thank you TED-Ed.

we want to end climate change but won't use the most efficient way to end it?

Yes there are challenges, but there are also solutions to the challenges suggested here. For example @3:14 they describe the fission rate of being too low. What is occurring is that U-235 has too small of a neutron cross section for uranium 238 to split the parts. However there is a solution to this problem. Instead of using U-238 which has 5% probability of fission production, you can use Th-234 (thorium) to transmute U-233 which has an 80% probability of fission production due to a significantly larger cross section. This is why thorium reactors do not require as much fuel, and why they don't produce as much waste as the common reactors of today.

watching a video about nuclear power, got an ad about war

I can’t believe Ted-Ed, of all channels, would describe nuclear power in such a negative light.

I like how all this video talks about is the doomsday scenarios associated with nuclear power instead of the potentially millions of lives that could be saved each year by switching to it instead of coal.

Homer Simpson will be the end of us.

saying this is biased, is an understatement. it leaves a lot of very important qualifiers and caviates on modern countermeasures and engineering which prevent such issues. new reactor deaigns deal with most of these problems. in addition, making a bomb from light water spent fuel is incredibly difficult and messy (meaning easily detrctable). i hate it when these ted eds speak with an agenda, instead of presenting facts

It is sad to see it go down as this kind of power generation has the most potential using cutting edge science. I've read some developments in using the plutonium as fuel, where the nuclear plant doesn't consume fuel but creates them. I never heard of it again these days. I do hope research is still being done and wish it to see working alongside with renewable energies such as solar and wind in the future.

We need to be investing in this and renewable energy to replace fossil fuels.

Speaking of the challenges of nuclear power without mentioning any of the possible ways to overcome them ? expected better from a TED-ed ...

The rejection of nuclear as "dangerous" and "dystopian" reveals a chronic myopia of our global society. Even if nuclear energy has the potential to bring about world-ending consequences, the chance of it happening is a far better prospect than the certainty that it will happen with our reliance on oil and coal. Of course, our best course of action is to use renewables for anything and everything beyond a sustainable use of non-renewables, but that simply can't happen in the short term without some adjustment period.

*_It's amazing how people are against nuclear power for feeling "unsafe" but are fully for having 200+ nuclear submarines carrying 16 icbm's each to make them feel "safe"_* It's a wonderful & educated world we're living in, truly

Dude at 1:18 with the "can you not?!" sign is both exactly what I would probably do if I tried to protest and a mood.

This video was quite limited in what it actually discussed given the title. It also does NOT touch on any current reactor generations or improvements. Who funded this? An oil and gas company/lobby?

I am having a course of nuclear chemistry and radiation, and this video helped me a lot!! Thank you TED-Ed! And SCIENCE IS AWESOME!!!!!!

1:41 Why does Yoda show up? he's just a force, not a nuclear force.

7:41 oh hey! There’s the single survivor of vault 11 entering the Mojave.

I learnt this in geography class two months ago, I better know everything the video is about to (re)teach me! *_Edit:_* After watching the video I concluded that I only knew about ~15% of the information given in the video.

What the fuck. This was such a biased piece and I am disappointed in it. They didnt talk about how we are designing nuclear reactors to run off that waste. They didn't talk about how nuclear power plants 'leak' less radiation than coal power plants. How nuclear power plants are safer for humans and the environment than coal power plants (this includes the major disasters). How about how we would still need to process those radioactive materials because many industries rely on the byproducts of the refinement process to get things like Yellow Cake and Depleted Uranium. We have learned a lot sense Chernobyl and the industry has banded together to make nuclear power MUCH safer because our entire industry is at risk. Fukushima may also be brought up but let me remind you that they recovered much of the land around the Fukushima power plant (and moving closer each year) and the radioactive levels of the ocean is almost down to its natural levels. Nuclear isnt perfect, nothing is, but the world is far away from being able to function without power plants that have a stable source of power. Nuclear is the safest type of plant for that job. Dont take my word as the gospel, go and look at the facts for yourself. Just remember that nuclear is not the terror that the media frames makes it out be. I am sad that TED-Ed has sunk down to this level also.

*However, many 100% safe proposals for nuclear reactions exist, making nuclear energy the best

*If humans managed to harness the energy produced by nuclear fearmongering we would never run out of energy.*

2:56 is it just me or does the red-haired person look like Phineas?

Thank you for another amazing, informative, well-animated video! I love this channel.

I love how this video has so many Easter eggs/references! Great lesson!

Thank you for putting homer in ted Ed!

Who else thought their phone screen was dirty?

I love just how this lesson has so many references. Great video!

Maybe have a follow-up video exploring different types of reactors and why the current design needs to be changed.

1:47 the best part of any TED video I've ever seen

I'm surprised it didn't mention LFTR (Liquid Fluride Thorium Reactor) technology as a safer modern alternative. I still believe Nuclear is the best solution, we have currently, to the energy crisis.

Now I know how does a nuclear work, I don't need Ted ed anymore

What an amazing way to learn about this stuff. Many thanks.

6:20 Finland is currently building a 500-meter deep storage facility that is supposed to be operational in 2020. Sweden is also developing a similar storage.

5:16 chernobyl didn't have a containment building >.>

Can we take a few moments from our lives to appreciate the brilliant animation

thing about plutonium bombs is that A: they're extremely expensive just to construct, and B: they require micro-meter precision in their construction or the reaction fizzles

Honestly, I wish we have more budget to make Nuclear power safer and more acceptable. It just seems like the proper way to progress to the future rather than continue with our current one which is slowly ruining us and being spent completely.

This stuff is so complex, how did anyone come up with this. A big respect to those guys, truly an unsung heroes for the humanity

Liquid salt reactors. We have known about those for a long time - but they do not make fuel for bombs.. .so they never became mainstream. Those can use the existing nuclear fuel turning it into less radioactive and dangerous waste while extracting energy/heat. Luckily first reactors should be ready soon - haven't looked into it for a while.

This one was great, so many references. Keep making videos like this.

He makes learning actually make sense and not as boring

Today I learned what a meltdown is, I always thought it meant an explosion. Also, nice use of pop culture.

Thorium??

This explains it well. Thank you becasue you are the only channel that explained it properly.

Nice to learn these things as I only work for stress analysis of pipes near the turbine and have no idea what happens inside reactors.

2:04 - 2:06 Doesn't this disturb anyone? The way that the left yellow dude blinks his eyes one before the other...

Who else has been watching videos about nuclear reactors after watching Chernobyl?

Absolutely love the 90s style commentary and visuals !!

I love these videos. Really informative.

solutions to these problems have been around since the 1960 with molten salt reactors. thanks for the public fear mongering

2:58 is the guy sitting in the middle. "Phineas" from phone as and ferb cartoon. Now I know where they got those great project ideas XD...

Thanks for the lesson, so if we could have a breakthrough way of expediting the decay of plutonium greatly then the waste of Nuclear Power would be safer?

So many references! Also, very informing!

I expected better from TedEd. Nuclear power is efficient and a lot of the issues presented here didn't elaborate solutions well. Nuclear power is probably our best option to fight climate change, even though it is a slow process. It will help in the long run.

These animations 😍

I love the animations in this video, Especially U235, It almost look like Minion..♥♥♥ Also thanks for the Informative video. ♥Ted-Ed♥

What i never understood, even when doing physics, is where that percentage of mass that becomes energy comes from, is it entire subatomic particles randomly selected to become energy, or is it a portion of each atom/subatomic particle that does so?

5:17 *Hmmm, that looks familiar, where have I seen that before???*

All those references get me all the time haha Fallout, Yoda, Homer, and even the passing Watchmen comment :D

Could the writers please provide authoritative information regarding the feasibility of using the plutonium specifically present in used conventional commercial light water reactor fuel assemblies? Especially in the context of relative difficulty compared to actual military material production?

our problem is the efficiency of most power generators. With coal, we exchange chemical energy for thermal(heat), heat to elastic in the form of pressure, pressure to mechanical and from mechanical finally to electricity. from all this we only got 30 to under 50% of the energy released.

Well, there are reactors capable of using the nuclear waste from older reactors as fuel.

use thorium

I’m so used to the typically striking, one-line conclusions of Ted-Ed videos that this one kinda left me hanging.

i'd love to see a similar video on nuclear thorium reactors. no wpn grade explosions to worry about.

Politics and Trump have infiltrated my second best channel of all time. Where is the youtube where people actually spoke about the video. Well TED ED great animation as usual. Thank you! But would love to see more videos in the style of the Hitler video you released way back. 👍

I was waiting for fusion reactions to be brought up, even thorium

One of the better TedEd videos! 👏

Gorgeous animation as always!

1:54 I’m dying 😂

brain.exe has stopped working, but the animation is way too cute so the brain keeps playing

Your videos are so good and interesting that i can't ignore at all

A lot of careful engineering goes into designing a nuclear power plant. fuel rod has many levels of barriers (like clad, inner and outer containment). For LOCA ( loss of coolant accident) which is pretty improbable to happen, they have ECCS ( emergency core cooling system). Every plant has rigorous analysis and safety reviews before commissioning ( like fault and event tree analysis of the whole system). Also regulatory bodies keep a close watch on whether the safety protocols are properly followed or not. Also problems of spent fuel are being addressed by vitrification, storage bay and also accelerator driven subsystem ( which can burn the long lived fission product to turn them into short lived daughter products). So, many apprehensions conveyed by the video are not very substantial and if we look for a better and greener future, nuclear energy is one of the best possible options that we have.

The vault dweller coming out of the vault at the end should be wearing a vault 13 suit. 13 was the main character's vault in Fallout 1.

0:14 Hmmmhmmm Crunchy atoms

I love the voice...so soothing.

Thanks, this is all the information i needed for my report

When i was a child i thought the main nuclear uranium was the one who generate electricity.

Humans need to start thinking in a more recycling and reusing system. Nuclear Power waste products could be recycled into nuclear medicine, if only we have the technology and resources. By applying this type of thinking we will lower a lot of the obstacles associated with nuclear energy, and see its true potential.

Sometimes, a great invention with an overwhelmingly massive potential comes with a new phobia.

I have never felt pure love to anything before, except Ted-ed

Biggest problem is people's fear of nuclear energy

7:02 Guy: lalala on my phone- hey someone replied on my tweet! >SIRENS GO OFF- guy: huh? *OH SHI- *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

just wanted to ask. does nuclear power plant make electricity cheaper for the common households ? i live in the philippines and they are planning on installing a nuclear power plant. how will this affect our monthly bills ?

It is a great disservice that the tiny quantity of high level waste is not mentioned. All high level waste generated in the past 60 yrs in the USA can be stored in a single football field

I've learnt this is in high school but I didn't understand a shit on what my teacher explained it to me and the whole class 😅

That nuke scene at the end hit like a truck

Most of the flaws pointed out in the video have been fixed or are being fixed with modern technology. Thorium reactors don't produce plutonium waste that can be in bombs, and there are reactors that can use nuclear waste to make energy. Also, many safety problems that have come up in the past were because of outdated technology. It is very important that all reactors use modern technology because it is much safer than the old technology that some plants probably still use to this day.

man the level of references on this video is amazing