The Pros And Cons Of Nuclear Power

Firstly, the atomic incidents of Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Chernobyl in Russia are often mentioned as examples for nuclear plants being unsafe. In both cases failures of workers led to a meltdown in the reactors and increased radiation in the surrounding area (Henderson 12-17). And as the recent disaster in Japan shows, a nuclear crisis cannot only be caused by human mishaps, but also by unpredictable and untamable natural hazards. Consequently, nuclear crises cannot be predicted or prevented completely. Nuclear plants are, furthermore, considered uneconomical because in the eighties the construction costs of nuclear plants were underestimated and exceeded the estimation by $100 billion (Henderson 103). Therefore, the nuclear power opponents are arguing that nuclear power is burdening the American economy unnecessarily. According to the nuclear physicist Jeff Eerkens, antinuclear groups are also claiming that nuclear power is not necessary for the future since renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal power will be providing sufficient energy for the United States, and are at the same time much cheaper than the costly nuclear power plants (Eerkens 20). Over all, opponents consider nuclear power to risky and inefficient to “deserve further support from U.S. taxpayers” (Henderson 104).

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.

A continual struggle of humanity is the search for a stable foundation of resources. With

“No one in the United States has become seriously ill or has died because of any kind of accident at a civilian nuclear power plant.” says Joe Barton. This is a highly controversial topic where there are many conflicting opinions. Some people believe that these plants are too dangerous to exist while other think that they are the edge of tomorrow. When analyzing it from a purely statistical and analytical standpoint, nuclear energy is clearly worth the possible risks they pose.

Imagine a world in which millions of people are wiped out within minutes due to men’s desire to put their materalistic desires before the well being of others: this is the dangerious path we’ll be undertaking if nuclear energy is used to fill the void left if coal and gas were not available. There should be steps taken to make it unlawful to construct additional nuclear power plants in the United States because these power plants are extremely dangerious to our environment and people; it’s also unclear how radiation exposure can effect people in the long-term; and there are other sources of energy that are available, such as solar energy.

Although nuclear energy has many upsides, there is one most commonly worried about problem with these facilities, the danger of radiation. Radiation poisoning can severely handicap people, animals, plants, and with bad exposure to high radiation it can cause death. A good example of the dangers of nuclear energy is Chernobyl. This was a place in the Ukraine where there was a steam explosion which in turn lead to a fire in the nuclear reactor. This produced a cloud of deadly radioactive gas which is a called a plume. This plume can get into waterways, get in the rain cycle, and be taken by weather all over the

Nuclear energy to create power has been used for hundreds of years. Today nuclear energy powers almost 11% of the world. It produces nearly no greenhouse gases or co2 emissions. But it does leave behind nuclear waste that stays radioactive for decades. Nuclear energy has been used for many years, but there are goods and bads to Nuclear power from nuclear energy.

In spite of the downsides, nuclear power has many advantages. First of all, nuclear energy is more efficient than fossil fuels. It also does not rely on weather conditions like most renewable energy. Along with its efficiency, nuclear power plants have low operating costs. Finally, while nuclear power does produce radioactive waste, its greenhouse gas emissions are significantly lower than

The potential and economic effects of Nuclear power can be devastating. Just look at Chernobyl. And everywhere that has Nuclear power. Where does all the radioactive and toxic waste go? We just put it in a huge barrel, and bury them in deep caves. It doesn’t get rid of the problem, it makes a bigger one. What happens if there’s an earthquake, and all of that spills and gets into our water system, or our oceans, or kills off our animals? It’s not safe.

It is not safe for the environment or to the people that work at nuclear plants. There have been many accounts of nuclear power plants fail or even imploding because of the usage of nuclear energy. For instance the Chernobyl disaster that had occurred on 26 April, 1986 in Russia. It is said that, “The Chernobyl accident dominates the Energy accidents sub-category, of most disastrous nuclear power plant accident in history, both in terms of cost and casualties. It is one of only two nuclear energy accidents classified as a level 7 event (the maximum classification) on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the other being the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011. The struggle to safeguard against scenarios which were, at many times falsely, perceived as having the potential for greater catastrophe and the later decontamination efforts of the surroundings, it involved over 500,000 workers and cost estimated to 18 billion rubles (308658382.05 US Dollars). During the accident, blast effects caused 2 deaths within the facility and later 29 firemen and employees died in the days-to-months afterward from acute radiation syndrome.”-Wikipedia. Another disaster is the Three Mile Island Accident. In 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was destroyed because of a cooling malfunction. According to the plant operators that, “After a radiation leak was discovered on March 30, residents were advised to stay indoors. Experts were uncertain if the hydrogen bubble would create further meltdown or possibly a giant explosion, and as a precaution, Governor Thornburgh advised ‘pregnant women and preschool age children to leave the area within a five-mile radius of the Three Mile Island facility until further notice.’ This led to the panic the governor had hoped to avoid; within days, more than 100,000 people had fled surrounding towns.”history.com

When asked about the number of active nuclear power plants most people in the United States would probably guess a like ten or twenty when in actuality “there are currently sixty one commercially operating nuclear power plants with ninety nine nuclear reactors in thirty states in the United States. Thirty-five of these plants have two or more reactors.”(eia.gov) In America nuclear power has a stigma of just negative effects among these is ,“radioactive waste produced by nuclear reactors which needs to be disposed of at a safe place since they are extremely hazardous and can leak radiations if not stored properly. Such kind of waste emits radiations from tens to hundreds of years. The storage of radioactive waste has been major bottleneck for the expansion of nuclear

The use of nuclear power is risky, costly, and dangerous. The chances of having it leak are great, and if it ever does manage to leak somehow, it will take millions to clean up the mess. Nuclear power plants are also expensive to maintain and build. The money that goes to building nuclear plants only to have them taken down again could go to greater causes, such as funding other sources of renewable energy. For example, solar power, wind power, geothermal power, hybrid and electric cars, and aggressive energy efficiency are climate solutions that are safer, cheaper, faster, more secure, and less wasteful than nuclear power (“Ten Strikes Against Nuclear Power.” Green America.). Overall, the cons of building and using nuclear power (plants) outweigh

Most of the disadvantages all stem from one major issue: the fuel created at these power plants are radioactive. What little waste that is produced at the plants remains radioactive for thousands of years and has a high cost in the storage of the waste. The radiation created can be detected miles away causing not only health concerns for employees at the facility, but also for those who live nearby. One of the leading disadvantages is the complexity in the management of nuclear waste. Poor managing at the nuclear plant can cause a hazardous nuclear explosion by generating a system failure, which releases radioactivity into the environment. The risk of disasters is a major concern. Nuclear power plants also have limited lifespans; therefore, the United States would have to continuously build new plants to replace the old. In doing so, this creates another weakness that is the high start-up cost of a nuclear plant. The cost of the production of energy is very low; then again, recovery of the capital cost is more expensive driving the cost of energy higher. Nuclear power ships and submarines also pose a threat to marine life due to being radioactive. However, the most frightening disadvantage is the use of nuclear power in the military industry. A terrorist could get their hands on this, as well as other countries. The list of weaknesses for nuclear power can be controlled reducing their

Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission, splitting atoms in two, which releases energy in the process to generate heat and electricity. Heat created by fission drives the turbines that generate electricity. When nuclear power was first created it was predicted that it would be very successful. It was also predicted that nuclear power would be “too cheap to meter,” that is electricity would be very cheap so either consumers would not be charged for electricity at all or the prices would be very low (Cohn, 1997). Although nuclear power is still in use today the initial success of nuclear industry eventually declined. Nuclear industry and its supporters claim that nuclear power is environmentally friendly, inexpensive, and safe,

Nuclear power was the world’s fastest growing form of energy in the 1990’s. However, presently it is the second slowest growing worldwide. Considering that nuclear power accounts for eleven percent of the world’s energy supply, one must ask what happened [Nuclear Power]. Why is it that the growth of nuclear power has almost completely stalled? The simple answer is that after meltdowns such as Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, many people are afraid of nuclear power plants, which causes great opposition to the expansion of the industry. Unfortunately, most people are not well informed about nuclear energy; many do not take the time to view its positives and negatives.