Nuclear Power : A Case Study On The 1986 Disaster At The Chernobyl Atomic Power Station

The first advantage of nuclear energy is that it is one of the cleanest sources of energy available to us now. The process of fission doesn’t emit any greenhouse gases or emissions that are linked to global warming. Nuclear energy is currently the largest clean air energy source. It currently occupies 63.3 percent of the emission free electricity in the United States, and this must continue to get expanded upon. With increased use of nuclear energy comes a decreased use in fossil fuels, which would result in a lower carbon footprint for the U.S. This would help slow down the impact of global warming and climate change.

Firstly, the usage of nuclear power is consistent and plentiful. As we know, the reaction of nuclear can emit a great power of energy, it can support vast of families’ and enormous plants’ working. In addition, unlike solar energy and wind power, which depend on external factors, nuclear power is consistent generate at anytime and anywhere. Secondly, since the nuclear power is easy to produce and it also can generate a huge amount of power, it is much cheaper to use it. What’s more, like Hill’s saying, “with the cost of natural gas and oil soaring”, the nuclear plants have return back to work and produce massive energy. Lastly, nuclear power benefits to environment: not only because it does not produce the carbon emissions, which can alleviates the global warming; but also it reduces the noxious byproducts, like sulfur dioxide, which is main reason of air pollution. Therefore, using the nuclear power is an ideal energy resource for human

Nuclear power is a much greener option than others, and can help prevent the devastating effects of fossil fuels on the environment. Burning fossil fuels releases thousands of tons of GHGs (greenhouse gasses) into the air that cause a variety of serious environmental problems. The emissions cause global warming which leads to the melting of polar ice caps and the raising of oceans. This also causes acid rain and air pollution which pollutes water sources, accelerates erosion and damages ecosystems (Pacific

It is also can cause fatal consequences. One of the main disadvantages of nuclear power plants is the severe consequences of accidents.

Chernobyl, Fukushima and Three Mile Island — all known as major nuclear power disasters. Nuclear power might be a good source of power, but in the long run it can be a real hazard and should be banned. If we rely on nuclear power to be our primary power source, it will cause major problems to humans and the environment. Nuclear power is hard to dispose of, expensive to run, and the reactors can easily be disrupted and cause the release of massive amounts of radiation.

Chernobyl was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred April 26th, 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the town of Pripyat, Ukraine. Chernobyl is the worst nuclear disaster in the world in terms of cost and causalities. 31 people died as a direct result of the explosion – all of whom were reactor staff and emergency workers. Until the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, Chernobyl was the only nuclear accident classified as a level 7 event (the maximum classification) on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The Chernobyl accident was the outcome of a extremely flawed Soviet-era reactor design called RBMK as well as faulty and careless actions of the under educated and under trained operators. RBMK –which translates to “High Power Channel-type Reactor”—is a design that American physicist Hans Bethe has called "fundamentally faulty, having a built-in instability." The RBMK design is now universally recognized as being defective, although as of 2013 there are 11 RBMK reactors operating in Russia. The operators had switched the safety systems off, and the reactor was being operated under improper and unstable conditions. The accident occurred during an experiment scheduled to test a possible safety emergency core-cooling feature. At 1:23 a.m. on April 26, extremely hot nuclear fuel rods were lowered into cooler water, creating a giant amount of steam, which — because of the RBMK reactors ' design flaws — created more reactivity in the nuclear core of reactor

There have been lots of nuclear accident around the world. One of the accident that had a major impact on the world was the Chernobyl disaster. The disaster took place on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. The disaster was caused by a reaction explosion induced by design faults and staff application errors. The accident took place in the course of scheduled tests to check the power supply mode in the event of external sources loss. Even after 10 days, explosions and ejections of radioactive substances continued. The release of radiation and radioactive substance polluted the places within 30 km of Chernobyl, and those areas have been closed for a long period of

Pollution is another topic with both pros and cons. Fossil fuels release harmful pollutants into the air such as carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. Nuclear power does not release any of those toxins into the atmosphere. However, a pollution problem with nuclear energy is thermal pollution, where a plant’s “hot effluents” are put into a nearby body of water, and raise the temperature by a small amount but enough to cause a disturbance in the ecosystem of the lake or reservoir. Nevertheless, this could easily be solved by cooling the effluents before releasing them into the water. The other problem facing nuclear energy is waste disposal. Nuclear waste is radioactive and very dangerous. Therefore, it must be kept buried and sealed up for a long period of time until the radioactivity dies [Plasma-Material]. One positive fact about nuclear energy that is not disputed is its abundance.

But after all the advantages of using nuclear energy outweigh its disadvantages as nuclear plants emit less than one-hundredth of carbon dioxide gas compared to coal or gas-fired energy plants so there is a very little effect on the environment. Humans living next to coal-fired power plants are exposed to higher radiation doses than those living near nuclear plants, where the former is harmful to human health and may be responsible for acid rain. On the other hand dependence on nuclear energy is now increasing in most countries as nuclear reactors use uranium as a fuel which is found everywhere on earth. It is inexpensive and easier to transport than other fuels which makes them less dependent on oil and foreign fuel from other countries.

Early in the morning of April 27, 1986, the world experienced its largest nuclear disaster ever (Gould 40). While violating safety protocol during a test, Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl power plant was placed in a severely unstable state, and in a matter of seconds the reactor output shot up to 120 times the rated output (Flavin 8). The resulting steam explosion tossed aside the reactor’s 1,000 ton concrete covering and released radioactive particles up to one and a half miles into the sky (Gould 38). The explosion and resulting fires caused 31 immediate deaths and over a thousand injuries, including radiation poisoning (Flavin 5). After the

The Chernobyl accident was a disastrous nuclear event that happened on 26th April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. The Chernobyl disaster is classified as a level 7 event according to the International Nuclear Event Scale (only two events have been classified this high in the past) and has caused damages that consist of the cost of 500,000 workers and 18 billion rubles, 31 deaths according to the Soviet casualty count (this is still being disputed) and between 4000-27000 affected future deaths due to radiation exposure [G1].

The world as we know today is dependent on energy. The options we have currently enable us to produce energy economically but at a cost to the environment. As fossil fuel source will be diminishing over time, other alternatives will be needed. An alternative that is presently utilized is nuclear energy. Nuclear energy is currently the most efficacious energy source. Every time the word ‘nuclear’ is mentioned, the first thought that people have is the devastating effects of nuclear energy. Granting it does come with its drawbacks; this form of energy emits far less pollution than conventional power plants. Even though certain disadvantages of nuclear energy are devastating, the advantages contain even greater rewards.

Nuclear energy is the energy released in the nucleus of an atom during nuclear fission or fusion, and it also uses the fuel which makes from processed uranium and mined to generate electricity. There are some advantages and disadvantages of nuclear energy. Firstly, the advantages are considered. It has the low pollution because the amount of greenhouse gases has reduces significantly as a result of the prevalence of nuclear power. It is also have the small effect on natural systems. Nuclear energy uses energy power to make inexpensive electricity, which is a quite low operating cost owing to the low of utilizable uranium. A nuclear power plant does not have constraints and it can run without disruption in climatic condition, it also has a stable base load of energy which can work with renewable energy sources. Nuclear energy in non-renewable source, besides it is potential sustainability by using fusion reactors and breeder reactors. As far as disadvantages are concerned, one of the important problems is environment impact. This problem is caused by uranium. Nuclear energy also has a high cost because it uses a large amount of investment to establish a nuclear power plant. Another drawback of nuclear energy is nuclear accidents; the radioactive waste can cause the environment and health problems on the human life. For example, The Chernobyl accident in Ukraine happened on 26th April 1986 which

In this paper I discuss the benefits of switching from energy production methods that use coal or natural gases to nuclear energy as our primary means of electricity. I touch on some of the many economic opportunities that these power plants provide us with. With this prompt I wanted to explore the idea of relying solely on nuclear energy which seems to be possible. Now with Nuclear energy I realize that many people have clouded judgement on the topic so I chose to discuss some of the health issues that are posed by nuclear power plants and some solutions being introduced to the public.

The main cons or challenges faced by nuclear energy are high cost, environmental impact, radioactive waste disposal, and nuclear accident. In the nuclear plant, waste is kept letting it cool for a considerable amount of time before blending it with glass. This waste must be kept, followed and observed to keep the materials from falling into the wrong hands and causing problems. These demands for administration and included materials cost cash on top of the high expenses needed to put together a plant, which may make it less desirable to invest in. All of this is normally opposed by the people who live in that region and requires permission from several international authorities. This is the reason for the higher cost of nuclear power.