Nuclear energy is the energy contained in the nucleus of an atom that is released in a nuclear reaction. It is undoubtedly the most powerful source of energy that exists right now. It wasn't until this very century that scientists learned to obtain this form of energy; however, when they obtained it, they did not know it could be controlled and made useful or how it could be a threat. Scientists first started studying the atom for knowledge about the universe. The discovery of nuclear energy began with the study of radioactivity in 1896 by Antoine Henri Becquerel (1852-1908), a French physicist. Albert Einstein's famous equation "E=MC2" (1921) led to the discovery of nuclear energy, but Einstein himself said that nuclear energy could never be controlled. Lord Ernest Rutherford continued Becquerel's studies in 1919. Still, the use of nuclear energy was not proven until 1945 when the first atomic bomb was tested in New Mexico.


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