Is Nuclear Power Worth Nuclear Waste?

When someone thinks of problems plaguing the world, nuclear energy is not the first thing that comes to peoples minds these days.[1]Nuclear power was once deemed the new energy of the future.[2]However, numerous nuclear power plant accidents around the world put a damper on that notion.The United States considers itself one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, but 103 nuclear reactors currently operating within her borders, one was bound to fail sometime or another.[3]

•     Waste from nuclear energy stays radioactive for thousands of years. Great care has to be taken in storing this waste safely.

Disposal of the high level nuclear waste that comes from nuclear power plants continues to be a big problem. It has been challenging and costly to find safe ways to store this waste. According to a report from the U.S National Academy of Sciences, it will take 3 million years for radioactive waste stored in the U.S. as of 1983 to decay to background levels (thinkquest.org). Who wants this amount of waste stored in the environment where they live? Currently in the U.S. nuclear power plants produce 3,000 tons of this high level waste each year (thinkquest.org). If nuclear power continues to be produced, this amount of waste will only continue to increase, causing a bigger dilemma as to what to do with the waste. As the waste is removed from the plant it still contains a high level of radiation. Exposure to radiation whether it occurs in the moving process or leakage from storage not only has a negative impact on the environment but also can pose a major health threat to humans. Based on the level of exposure, symptoms to humans can range from nausea and headaches to damage of nerve cells, loss of white blood cells and even death (think .org). The potential risk of exposure is not worth human life.

Today, a considerable amount of energy is provided by nuclear energy. The technology is well organized and developing every passing day and as a result the cost of operation is falling. Using radioactive resources to produce energy generates waste. Waste that contains radioactive materials is called nuclear waste. The secure and environmentally-friendly disposal of nuclear waste is a crucial aspect of nuclear power programs. [1]

Albert Einstein once said, “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” Albert Einstein is well known for his involvement in nuclear fission with his famous equation, e=mc2. This has led to the development of nuclear energy, an amazing source of energy with some potentially lethal side effects. But is nuclear energy worth it? I’m here today to tell you that yes, nuclear energy is worth it, and to discuss how it can benefit society as a whole. We will begin with how nuclear energy came about, and how it compares to fossil fuels, the most predominant form of energy production. Then, we will move on to discuss some of the main issues that people have with nuclear energy, before, finally, we

Most power plants burn coal, oil, or natural gas to turn water into steam. This steam make a turbine rotate which produces electricity. In a nuclear power plant, atoms are split creating heat to turn the turbine. Other power plants create many greenhouse gases, while nuclear power plants only release carbon dioxide. There are 100 commercial nuclear reactors in the U.S., these reactors account for about 20% of the nation's total electricity. There are 7,577 other power plants ( thermal, hydro-electric, geothermal, and wind power plants) not including nuclear power plants in the U.S. alone. These power plants - talk about pollution -emit carbon dioxide, ammonia, methane gas, boron, decrease oxygen supply, displace animals, and many other things.

Lastly, the lack of proper supervision and protection for the nuclear plants can potentially cause detrimental amount of damage to the environment and society. We need to take responsibility for the safety for our next

Modern concerns about global warming have rekindled ideas about nuclear power in the United States but one concern still remains: what is to be done with the waste? Right now most spent nuclear fuel is stored in large casks at the plants where it was used with plans in the works for a common location to store the waste for long periods of time. Long term storage is not the only option, technology exists to take this spent nuclear fuel and remove the unused plutonium and uranium from the waste products to create more fuel. The remaining waste would be stored in a long term facility as discussed above. This process is highly controversial due to economic and safety concerns, but could increase the capacity of a long term storage facility.

The preservation of energy alternatives will not be possible without permanent disposal of the spent nuclear fuel. (DOE). Without a doubt, nuclear energy is dangerous, but everyone should know that sound policies have been established and will continue to be established to ensure that contamination risks are low.

The use of nuclear power and nuclear weapons is forcing humankind, and indeed the whole ecosystem, to participate in a particularly cruel and totally uncontrolled experiment. The United States can not afford continuing to raid the environment with long-lived radioactive materials that are scattered to the wind and embedded in our soil, exposing large populations, and foisting health impacts - such as: “high instances of infant mortality and more than six thousand cases of thyroid cancer in children and adolescents according to a 2008 UN report” - (6) on unsuspecting future generations who have no choice in this matter. With this in mind, nuclear energy also puts out more carbon dioxide, puts out more air pollutants, enhances mortality more and takes longer to put up than real renewable energy systems, namely wind, solar, geothermal power, hydro-tidal wave power and, the radiation exposure will force animals and insects out of their homes, or possibly kill them as to what happened in Chernobyl. Moreover, nuclear power enhances nuclear weapons proliferation. (Ted Talk) Due to the fact, that the people haven’t yet came up a solution to where to store spent energy. Moreover, short- and long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel has been a challenge for the industry and policymakers. Spent fuel, if not disposed of properly, could contaminate water supplies or be used by terrorists to create a dirty bomb. This

Nuclear energy is the energy released by a nuclear reaction, it uses fuel made from mined and processed uranium to generate heat and electricity. It is the world’s largest emission free energy source. Nuclear energy also has the lowest impact on the environment than other energy sources. But it can still be very harmful because of the radiation is causes and the radioactive waste it produces. Radioactive wastes are the ruins of nuclear materials that are used in providing nuclear energy. These wastes contain high levels of radiation that can be very hazardous to humans and the environment. Some people accept and support the idea of using nuclear energy and others don’t. In the following paragraphs, some major nuclear accidents and the public acceptance of nuclear energy will be discussed.

It is established that energy cannot be created nor destroyed and it could not be made out of nothing according the law of conservation of energy. The way that science explains the phenomenon of energy conservation is by portraying the conservation of energy as a physical transfer of energy between mediums through various forms such as heat, sound, and light. Since the discovery of fire in the early days of humanity, it can be understood that heat is the most versatile form of energy. On the expense of sacrificial physical matter, heat is produced particularly natural resource such as fossil fuels. While time progresses, the anticipated rate of decrease in fossil fuels has lead to the exploration of prospectively innovative long-term energy supplies. Nevertheless, like fossil fuels, injurious resources have professed many questions regarding the discarding of nuclear waste. This controversy paper will be mainly focusing on the question of whether nuclear waste can be disposed of safely.

Nuclear waste is the substance that nuclear fuel becomes after it has been used in a reactor. Although the metal rods appear unchanged after their use, the material inside has changed greatly. Before it was used to produce power, the fuel mainly consisted of uranium. In order to create heat energy in the reactor, U235 undergoes fission. Fission is a nuclear reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts. As a result of this, there is a chain reaction which creates heat. The control rods control the fission rate and the temperature. In the steam generator, the heat and cooling water create pressured steam which moves the turbine. The turbine creates energy that goes into a generator which gives off electricity. The water from the turbine is able to become usable since it gets cooled. Once a reactor reaches its lifetime, it becomes spent fuel and is treated as waste. Most countries bury the spent fuel or reuse it. In the U.S., we haven’t decided what to do with the spent fuel so most of the spent fuel rods are stored in temporary storage pools. In the future, the United States plans to bury the waste in the Yucca Mountains which are located in Nevada. This would be a suitable place since it is not close to humans or the environment.

Nuclear waste is also bad because of the cost to keep it in safe and contained areas. The nuclear business let's waste cool for a considerable length of time before blending it with glass and putting away it in enormous cooled, solid structures. This waste must be kept up, observed and

The use of nuclear energy is a big topic for debate. Many countries have fully embraced it while others, such as the U. S., haven’t. Nuclear energy is feared for its danger and scorned because of its wastes. On the other hand, nuclear energy does have some pros like cheaper cost of energy and environmentally safe. Reactor breeders show great promise in nuclear waste, but are it enough to convince the nation?