More than 100 of California's Death Row inmates have died in the last 40 years. Barely one in 10 were executed.
A clean energy resource. Nuclear energy originates from the splitting of uranium atoms â a process called fission. This generates heat to produce steam, which is used by a turbine generator to generate electricity. Because nuclear power plants do not burn fuel, they do not produce greenhouse gas emissions. By reliably providing power 24 hours a day, nuclear energy is an important part of the energy mix necessary to meet electricity demand.
Nuclear reactors work by using the heat generated by nuclear fission to produce steam that powers a turbine to produce electricity. Fission is when the nucleus of an atom (in most cases Uranium-235) splits in two, creating heat and expelling free neutrons. When these neutrons collide with other U-235 atoms, its causes more fission; this creates a nuclear chain reaction.