Oil, NATURAL GAS,NUCLEAR ENERGY

What is crude oil and how does it form?

is a thick liquid mixture of hydrocarbons made from dead marine plankton buried under the seafloor.

crude oil formation

over millions of years:

1. Plankton die

2. Sink to oxygen-poor seafloor

3. Covered with sediments

4. Heat + pressure “cook” them

5. Oil forms and migrates upward

6. Gets trapped beneath geologic layers

Oil must be distilled by boiling point at a refinery to separate gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, plastics, etc.

Environmental impacts of oil

• Oil spills (BP Deepwater Horizon, Exxon Valdez)

• Pipeline leaks

• Smog (from VOCs + NOx)

• Plastic pollution

• Habitat destruction from drilling

How do we clean oil spills?

• Booms (floating barriers)

• Skimmers (vacuum oil off surface)

• Dispersants (chemicals that break oil into droplets)

• Burning

• Shoreline cleanup

How does natural gas form?

Organic matter + heat + pressure = gas
Gas rises until trapped under a rock layer.

What is fracking and how does it work?

• Drill deep into shale rock

• Turn the drill horizontally

• Pump in water + sand + chemicals under high pressure

• Rock cracks open

• Sand grains “prop” cracks open

• Gas flows out the pipe

Fracking unlocked huge reserves — which is why natural gas is now cheap and widely used.

Environmental issues with fracking

• Methane leaks (powerful greenhouse gas)

• Groundwater contamination

• Earthquakes from wastewater injection

• Toxic flowback water

What is nuclear fission?

Picture a bowling ball (neutron) hitting a big unstable bowling pin (U-235 atom).

U-235 splits → releases:

• Heat

• Radiation

• More neutrons (that start a chain reaction)

Reactors control this with:

• Fuel rods

• Control rods

• Coolant

Why does nuclear energy release so much power?

E = mc²

A tiny bit of mass turns into a HUGE amount of energy because “c” is the speed of light → an enormous number.

What is nuclear fusion?

Fuse two hydrogen atoms → helium.
This is what powers the sun.

Fusion:

• Releases more energy than fission

• Produces no long-lived waste

• Cannot melt down

But it requires temperatures hotter than the sun, so it’s not commercially viable (yet).

What do we do with spent nuclear fuel?

• Cool in a deep water pool for 5–10 years

• Encapsulate in steel

• Encase in concrete

• Store on-site (the US lacks a permanent repositor

• France reprocesses theirs; the US does not (by law).

Major nuclear accidents

• Chalk River — first partial meltdown

• Three Mile Island — stuck valve + confusion

• Chernobyl — flawed design + human error

• Fukushima — tsunami shut off cooling → hydrogen explosions