1 Chapter I Introduction I.1 Background Stimulated by the urgency of the World War II, nuclear science progressed rapidly from the discovery of the neutron by Sir James Chadwick in 1932 (Echávarri, 2012). According of this basic knowledge came the discovery in 1939 that when atoms are split, energy is released. This led in turn to the first controlled chain reaction (1943), the first atomic weapon (1945), and the first production of electricity using nuclear energy (1951). During this period the nuclear reactor has been developed and nuclear energy is extracted from reactors. In 1942, Fermi created a critical pile after learning about nuclear fission and achieved a chain reaction of nuclear fission. The reaction’s output power was near to zero, however, this can be considered the first nuclear reactor constructed by humans (Sekimoto, 2007). In a fission chain reaction, a fissionable nucleus absorbs a neutron and fissions spontaneously, releasing additional neutrons. These, in turn, can be absorbed by other fissionable nuclei, releasing still more neutrons. Following its first application for generating electricity in the United States, nuclear energy began to be applied to the production of electricity in the United Kingdom (1953), Russia (1954), France (1956), and Germany (1961), five countries within the first decade. Ten more countries began nuclear-based generation in the 1960s followed by another ten in the 1970s (Echávarri, 2012). Nowadays, an enormous amount of energy is required to promote the welfare of human beings due to the growth of populations. This energy can be derived from fossil fuels. However, burning of fossil fuels has a number of potential undesirable effects such as, high levels of air pollution, increase greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere likely contributor to global warming acid rain that damages forests, lakes, and crops , and changes in global climate (Muthuvelan, 2014). Historically, fossil fuel energy has served the world for many decades beginning from the 1700s. Since the 1700s, fossil fuel energy has powered industrial production, automobiles and the activities of corporations which have contributed to GDP growth in several countries (Ozili and Peterson , 2023). Currently global energy crisis has been faced. The global energy crisis was caused by many factors including the global campaign to reduce carbon emission, the shortage in fossil fuel reserves due to divestment from 2 fossil fuels, the halt in oil production due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine and Russia conflict which causes the rise of gasoline prices (Ozili and Peterson, 2023). Although fossil fuel is a candidate of source of energy, the growing consumption of fossil fuels also means more emissions of greenhouse gases, which are believed to increase the likelihood of climate extremes and associated catastrophic events. Nuclear energy cannot cause these problems such as global warming, if breeder reactors are employed. However, nuclear energy has its special problems of safety, waste, and nuclear proliferation (Sekimoto and Yoshikane, 2001).