WEEK 12! THURSDAY 23 JULY 2009

Today Frank Macri from HypeFM's new show HyperBeam Radio joined Kate on the Millennium Kids Corner!

THE BIG SWITCH EXPERIMENT:
The Millennium Kids Corner looked into the Nuclear Power debate and checked out what Uranium is and where it comes from.

What is Uranium?
Uranium is a very dense, radioactive metallic element, naturally occurring in most rocks, soil, and even in the ocean! It is not at all rare, and in fact occurs more commonly than gold, silver or mercury. Uranium is found as an oxide or complex salt in minerals such as pitchblende and carnotite. It is formed from volcanic activity and has an average concentration in the earth's crust of about 2 parts per million.

Uranium was named after the planet Uranus, although the metal is not very common in the solar system. It does, however, provide the main source of heat inside the earth. Uranium is mined for many different purposes and has been used to produce energy for more than forty years.

When was Uranium discovered in Australia?
Although known to exist in Australia since the 1890s, uranium was first discovered at Mount Painter in the Flinders Ranges in the early 1900s. It was not until the 1930s that uranium ore was mined at Radium Hill in South Australia. Most of Australia's known uranium reserves are in South Australia. In fact, Olympic Dam is the world's largest known uranium resource. Over the past decade, Australia has earned more than $2.8 billion in income from more than 50,000 tonnes of exported uranium.

Nuclear Power and Uranium
Uranium, as it is mined from the earth's crust, is not directly useable for power generation. Much processing must be carried out to concentrate the fissile isotope U-235 before uranium can be used efficiently to generate electricity.
More so than other energy resources such as coal, oil and natural gas, uranium has its own distinctive and very complicated fuel cycle.

PLUS: Compared to coal power, Nuclear power does not emit hardly as many CO2 Emissions, it is a much cleaner form of energy.

MINUS: Nuclear energy has a great amount of radioactive waste that is produced as a by product of the processing of the Uranium. This waste is very toxic to humans and needs to be stored.

YOU DECIDE: Should we use Nuclear Power to solve our Greenhouse emission problem at the sake of a mass Nuclear Waste issue?

Millennium Kids Corner would like to thank Uranium South Australia for the facts about Uranium http://www.uraniumsa.org/about/what_is_uranium.htm