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.
How Nuclear Plants Generate Electricity. Nuclear plants, like plants that burn coal, oil and natural gas, produce electricity by boiling water into steam. This steam then turns turbines to produce electricity. The difference is that nuclear plants do not burn anything. Instead, they use uranium fuel, consisting of solid ceramic pellets, to produce electricity through a process called fission. Nuclear power plants obtain the heat needed to produce steam through a physical process. This process, called fission, entails the splitting of atoms of uranium in a nuclear reactor. The uranium fuel consists of small, hard ceramic pellets that are packaged into long, vertical tubes. Bundles of this fuel are inserted into the reactor.