How did nuclear energy get its name?

It's named after the atomic nucleus. Some people don't believe it works, though. Especially for nuclear weapons. read more

Nuclear power plants soon began sprouting up in the 1950s and 1960s, and were hailed as a safe, clean alternative to current energy practices. The amount of energy produced by the fission of a single uranium atom is approximately 10 million times the energy produced by the combustion of a single coal atom. read more

Nuclear energy can be used to create electricity, but it must first be released from the atom. In nuclear fission, atoms are split to release the energy. A nuclear reactor, or power plant, is a series of machines that can control nuclear fission to produce electricity. read more