A New Paradigm Of Nuclear Energy

his led to the melting of the fuel and a drastic increase in radioactivity within the reactor coolant.This also resulted in leaks in the coolant system, which led to small amounts of radiation escaping into the environment.[7]

Nuclear fission is a cost-effective, and relatively clean way to generate power. Since, the mid-1940’s, with the formation of the first atomic bombs, engineers have worked on improving nuclear power. In the 1970’s and 80’s nuclear power plants were built in cities to provide power for homes, workplaces, and other facets of life. Nuclear reactions were not well understood by the general public and therefore nuclear engineers inherited a certain status. Also as a result, nuclear power plants raised concerns for many Americans. The chances of a nuclear reactor failure were very slim, however, the consequences were devastating. Engineers feared that if the general public knew of the possible consequences that there would be massive amounts of unnecessary fear. As a result, operators of nuclear reactors were not informed of procedures to follow in the event of an emergency.

These accidents were chosen because they constitute worst yet valuable examples of what can – and, occasionally, does – go wrong in the nuclear power production realm, and because they shape our understanding of the caused harm. They also embrace a thirty-five year period, during which nuclear power underwent significant regulatory development worldwide, aiming to address growing concerns with respect to short- and long-term effects of such disasters on human health, environmental, social, and economic factors.

The public commonly counters nuclear because of the threat of a meltdown; however, meltdowns are rare and extreme circumstances that the nuclear power field is prepared to handle. Chernobyl has become one of the most frequently used arguments against the safety factor of nuclear energy, however there are critical pieces of the puzzle that the public overlooks. The first piece being that the design of the reactor was one-hundred percent of the design was of Soviet origin, which differed greatly from European and American designs (“Chernobyl Accident 1986”). Along with the design, improper training of Soviet personnel and Soviet approved testing directly contributed to the reactor’s failure (“Chernobyl Accident 1986”). One flawed aspect of the testing was that plant personnel where instructed to disable the automatic shutdown features that were in

Fukushima catastrophic is a warning to the world about the hazards of nuclear power and contained lessons for the other governments who plan new generation of nuclear power stations. First lesson is the full disclosure on potential risks and share creditable information with the public. Furthermore,

It has been nearly seven years since the nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima, Japan. It was on March 11, 2011 when the pacific coast of Honshu, the largest island in Japan, was hit by a forceful earthquake of magnitude of 9.0 and following tsunami. The powerful waves came in all the way up to ten kilometers inland and the result was over twenty thousand people dead or missing and an enormous amount of vital infrastructure damage including the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.1 There were six reactors operating in the region at the time and three of them reached full meltdown due to the failure of the cooling system caused mainly by the tsunami, releasing dozens of radioactive elements into the

History of Nuclear Power plants has shown human society that it is unreliable and unpredictable. Behrens and Rosen show the devastation that Chernobyl had on the human population after the large scale meltdown. “Fukushima was the worst nuclear disaster since 1986, when the Chernobyl nuclear power reactor in the Ukraine suffered a meltdown, eventually exposing over half a million cleanup workers to toxic levels of radioactivity and releasing lesser levels of contamination over much of the western USSR and Europe” (Behrens, Rosen 292). Chernobyl is a prime example of nuclear power plant reactions when they have meltdowns and fail. Chernobyl was a severe case but it gives the public a good idea of what happens when these power plants are not properly

The Fukushima Daiichi incident (March 11, 2011) is not the first nuclear meltdown incident. It is also not the first time that nuclear companies promise to give proper maintenance to their reactors. However, even if they do, sometimes Mother Nature strikes us and Disasters like this annihilate entire countries for never-ending years. In this particular case plutonium contaminated the water, air, and the soil. While the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plants asserts that they did their best to be prepared for incidents like this, the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami proved them wrong. As a consequence, one can infer that there is not a 100% measure that can protects us, when incidents like this happen.

The process of generating electrical power consists of several precise steps that must be executed correctly.The four main fundamental elements for a nuclear power plant are: reactor, cooling system,electrical-power generating unit, and safety system (Newton, D. E., & Gilman, L. 2014). Producing nuclear power originates from a process known as fission, which occurs when atoms split apart and releases energy that is used to generate electricity. The author states, “the splitting of an atom releases an incredible amount of heat and gamma radiation, or radiation made of high energy protons”(Brain M & Lamb R,2000). A chain reaction takes place during nuclear fission, it occurs when an atom of Uranium-235 is struck by a neutron, releasing tiny amount of heat energy. This result nucleus of the uranium to become unstable and split into two smaller nuclei,while releasing two or three more neutrons in the process (McLeish, E, 2008). While dealing with a chain reaction critical mass must be take into account. That is knowing as determining the smallest mass of a fissionable material needed to sustain

On March 11th of 2011, an earthquake and tsunami in Japan caused the Fukushima power plant to meltdown and release dangerous radiation into the environment and completely destroy the plant. Before this incident, public support for nuclear under Barack Obama, who was advocating increased production for nuclear power as it’s a clean energy, was at 71%.1 The most recent nuclear meltdown was the Three Mile Island incident in 1979, located in Harrisburg Pennsylvania, which was becoming a fading memory in the public’s mind. 2 In the aftermath of the Fukushima plant meltdown, the world became increasingly anxious about nuclear energy. Nonetheless, even with the renewed fears of nuclear power, production of new plants would continue in East Asia, India and the Middle East would

Since the accident at Fukushima, many scientists and citizens are worried about the nuclear industry. In 2011 the nuclear reactors at Fukushima, Japan were damaged causing a reactor meltdown. Even to this day, highly radioactive substances are flowing into the ocean. (The real nuclear meltdown 1) Incidents such as these have caused many counties and industries to debate using this technology and to move on from the nuclear industry. Recently in the United States, many nuclear reactors were shutdown due to aging reactors and power plants, costing many companies millions of dollars. Many companies have spent millions of dollars maintaining power plants and upgrading them to meet new safety standards. Some business people have determined that upgrading the reactors to meet new safety standards are just not worth it. Nuclear reactors become more unpredictable as they age, making it difficult to decide if a twenty-year-old reactor is worth upgrading.

​First, proponents of nuclear energy maintain that many safety issues are solved using newer reactor technologies, reducing the likelihood of accidents. Safety precautions increased dramatically in nuclear reactors preventing future meltdowns like Chernobyl or Fukushima. Many conclude that these technologies make nuclear reactors safer than coal burning plants. New reactor designs incorporate passive safety features which require no active controls or operational intervention to avoid accidents in the event of malfunction. These features may rely on gravity, natural convection and or resistance to high temperature to prevent a meltdown. All safety systems are redundant and most new designs have both redundant active and

In regards to the Chernobyl accident, the meltdown was caused by a flawed design of its nuclear reactor. It was human error that caused the disaster to occur, not the process of generating the electricity. As a result of the disaster, nuclear power plants were forced to enforce guidelines and implemented safety precautions to protect the employees and workers; these include: improved structure and design, monthly routine check-ups, and stricter enforcement of protocols to ensure safety. With a total of 16,000 properly functioning nuclear reactors over 33 countries, the idea of a threat has decreased

On March 11, 2011, an earthquake large enough to cause the earth axis to shift by several inches (p. 3) sent a massive tsunami rushing towards a forested stretch of the Japanese coast south of Sendai where the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power reactors stood vulnerable (p. 4). Over the ensuing weeks, the world watched in horror as a natural disaster transformed into a man-made catastrophe: fail-safes failed, cooling systems shut down, nuclear rods melted, communications broke down, hazardous radioactive exposures and contamination occurred, and masses of people were displaced. Safety of nuclear power plants is a very important topic that has significant local and global implication for environmental health. This book was chosen to help

Here is a brief description of what is going on. Fission uses a fairly common element called uranium. Uranium has several isotopes, the most common of which is U-238. The isotope of interest, however, is U-235. This is the only uranium isotope that can undergo induced fission. This means that if a neutron were to come into contact with a U-235 atom, the atom would readily absorb the neutron and would split into two smaller atoms. When this happens, there are enormous amounts of energy and heat released.