Lakhmir Singh Physics Class 10 Solutions Chapter 3 - Sources of Energy

It is always better to solve all the Chapter exercises as these give you practice to perform well in the exams. The NCERT textbook has activities and exercises after every section. After going through each section, go through the activities and understand them completely. Practice the exercises regularly and try to solve them. There are chances that some of the same questions might come in the examination, so students are advised to read the Chapters thoroughly and practice almost every single question both in the final exercise as well as the section end assessments.  These can be downloaded free of cost from the official website of Vedantu and app.

With technological progress there is demand for an increase in energy every day. There is a change in our lifestyles and the use of machines is more to do the tasks. There is an increase in the  basic requirements which can improve  our living standards. Since there is the demand for increase in the energy  there should be more sources of energy. The technology should be developed to use the energy that is known in a more efficient way.

Reactors are built-in nuclear power plants to produce energy using nuclear reactions. They do this by splitting atoms. The heat from the reactions drives turbines that create electricity. The keyword here is "fusion." This is how you turn uranium or other heavier atoms into plutonium or protactinium. The process is similar to splitting an atom in a regular, chemical reaction. Plutonium, the fissionable material in the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, is one of the two main types of plutonium used in nuclear weapons today. Another is highly-enriched uranium, which can be enriched up to 20% purity, or more, by adding extra neutrons.

There are two types of fission reactions: slow and fast.

Slow fission is how uranium or other heavier atoms are made. You have to heat up the atom in a uranium nucleus, or "fuse," to about a million degrees Celsius. But as the fission process takes place, the neutrons knock some of the fuel elements out of the nucleus which has to be taken out  of the reactor and store them separately in special fuel rods or glassware called fuel modules.

Fast fission takes place inside the reactor and releases more energy and creates more unstable radioactive waste. A fast reactor's core is made up of uranium or thorium fuel rods surrounded by water. The radioactive material is moved through pipes in the reactor. The waste is stored in stainless steel tanks and shipped off-site for disposal.