Nuclear Power Plants and Safety

As the worlds population continues to grow, the energy demand will also increase posing an important question as to how will we keep up with the demand, and which source of energy will be the most efficient and be a better source for human sustainability. Fuel for nuclear energy is abundant and is derived from the fission of uranium and plutonium. It meets the definition of sustainable by being able to provide energy for long time periods without depriving future generations; it releases very little greenhouse gases, is less expensive, and is a reliable form of

(1)At 1:23 am on April 26th 1986, 2 explosions devastated a nuclear power plant in Chernobyl. These explosions unleashed huge amounts of toxic radiation into the atmosphere. This radiation created a toxic plume of radiation that not only devastated Chernobyl but affected almost the whole of Europe. It started with total evacuation of the city, this started within 24 hours of the disaster and immediately an exclusion zone was in place. What the Ukrainian officials didn’t know at the time is just how serious this was. The wind blew the plumes created by this explosion one plume north and one plume west. The plumes were highly toxic and had been contaminated by the nuclear radiation. The radiation going west even reached north wales and many parts of Scotland and the south of Ireland. The radiation going north badly affected Finland, Sweden and parts of Norway. To put that into perspective the disaster released at least 100 times more radiation than the atom bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

The town part of Chernobyl had become a sanctuary The trees from around the disaster turned into a ginger color calling the area Red forest but they got cut down later (Lallanilla Marc). In the end the accident resulted in 70,000 people disabled 25,000 deaths in which 20% committed suicide from how bad the chemicals hurt them. Contamination won't be for over 100 years and Chernobyl won't be habitable for 20,000 years this overall caused a lot of

Nuclear power plants produce a lot of energy but the power plant is also potentially, extremely dangerous. There is 100 nuclear power plants that are in use in the United States of America as of now. Although when there is an accident, the power plants release a lot of radiation. The radiation hurts the environment, including living things. Since nuclear power plants are not entirely safe and still have flaws, they can lead to disastrous events like the Chernobyl accident. The accident led to about 270,000 cancers and 93,000 fatal cancers according to the Greenpeace Organization. The Union of Concerned Scientists has created solutions in making nuclear reactors safer. They have sent recommendations to the owners of the power plants to tell them what they should do to make sure there will not be anymore nuclear accidents. So far, with these regulations, there have not been any accidents in the U.S. However, the Environmental Protection Agency has made a more promising solution by regulating the radionuclide emissions and the removal of high level radioactive waste that the power plants are producing. However with these regulations, there is still are still possibilities of nuclear accidents and the release of radiation caused by the power plants. Nuclear power plants need to be safer to help the environment and to prevent numerous deaths.

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

Can you imagine finding that a local power plant near you exploded and now there is radiation in the air you breath? That’s what the people at Chernobyl went through. People think Chernobyl exploded for many different reasons. The explosion caused many illnesses and affected many children. There were many things wrong with Chernobyl and its reactors. Many people still died even after they were evacuated from their homes, some people even chose to stay in the contaminated areas. The Chernobyl accident was caused by humid air, and it hurt lots of people.

Due to this energy crisis, our society depends much too greatly on nuclear power for the greatest proportion of electrical power. The crisis is an extremely large and complex issue that deals with both socio-scientific and environmental issues. This generation and production of electrical power, known as nuclear power, uses a great deal of non-renewable fossil fuels to generate electrical power.

The world today functions on electricity and technology. Throughout the generations, scientists and engineers have been innovative and discovered ways to create electricity. The most popular method, as of right now, is fossil fuels. However, the world is slowly running out and soon another method will have to replace fossil fuels. The obvious answers are natural resources, such as wind, water, and solar power, which will not run out. However, all these sources are unreliable, and therefore not a steady enough method to replace fossil fuels. Nuclear power can end the search for a power source and supply much more electricity at a smaller cost.

Tragic, devastating nuclear events occurred in Chernobyl and Fukushima negatively impacting the environment and health of people in the surrounding area. As the result of oversight and human errors, these issues could be categorized as megadisasters caused by manmade catastrophe. This essay will highlight the issues with nuclear power plants that lead to incidences and horrific fallout, as is featured in both highlighted nuclear events. Through a comparison of the nuclear events at Chernobyl and Fukushima, this essay hopes to shed light on the value and dangers of nuclear energy. Through identifying issues with nuclear power, issues such as the lack of preparedness, contingency planning, and adequate public awareness can be challenged and

To date there are currently 61 operating nuclear power plants in the US alone, with 450 known power plants operating worldwide and 60 additional plants under construction. With this many nuclear power plants in existence uranium will continue to play a key role in the nuclear power world for as long as energy is required in our day to day life.

Nuclear accidents have plagued nuclear power it 's very conception, and as thus tainted its name, and lead to bad publicity as being unsafe and dangerous. To focus on one incident, Chernobyl was one of the largest blunders in all of Nuclear history. Not only was miles around the plants irradiated, citizens and workers were exposed to higher levels of radiation, the workers even being developing acute radiation sickness. (NRC Backgrounder). After the initial incident, 18sq miles around the plant became the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, and the area is not to be inhabitable for between 180 and 320 years (The Globe and Mail). It could have been prevented though. In the journal of Control, Béla Lipták writes, “Chernobyl Did Not Need To Occur” and examines the Chernobyl and views it as a act of human error, “The causes of this accident were similar to those at 3 Mile Island seven years earlier. Both of these accidents occurred at night, after a shift change of operators who were poorly trained, uninformed and were operating the plants under manual control while their safety controls were bypassed. […] The accident occurred while the reactor was being tested at low loading (20%) to determine the time period during which the plant would stay stable and continue to produce electricity after being shut down. The test was conducted in the middle of the night, by an inexperienced crew, while the control computer was disabled.” (Lipták) As one can see, it was a error in operation and

Nuclear power plants are considered far more dangerous than others because of their power source: the element uranium 235. When these atoms are split, they release an abundance of

The Chernobyl incident continues to demonstrate the risks involved with nuclear power, as well as the consequences of any failure. Simple human error led to a chain reaction that caused the reactor core to melt down. The resulting explosion spewed clouds of radiation into the atmosphere that quickly spread. Kasperski states, “The explosion of reactor Unit 4 on April 26, 1986 led to heavy radioactive contamination of regions of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia” (Kasperski 44). With no way of containing the radiation, the toxic cloud quickly spread throughout Europe. Nazaryan explains, "The toxic cloud that enveloped much of Europe....contained: cesium-137, iodine-131, zirconium-95...." (Nazaryan 4). What made matters worse is that the public didn’t know about the accident until two days after the explosion occurred. This resulted in thousands of civilians unknowingly exposing themselves to potentially life-threatening levels of radiation. While the radioactive cloud eventually dispersed into the atmosphere, the same cannot be said about the radiation absorbed by the ground

The invention of the nuclear power plant was humanities greatest hopes but biggest fears. The energy is clean and frees us from using fossil fuels but it also screams disaster. There was an earth quake in Japan that caused a nuclear power plant to leak out radioactive steam. However there were 443 operating nuclear power plants in 47 countries in 2011 and in 2009 atomic energy accounted for 14 percent of the world’s energy production. In the United States alone 104 nuclear power plants supply some 20 percent of electricity.

The world's natural resources are being consumed at an alarming rate. As these resources diminish, people will be seeking alternative sources by which to generate electricity for heat and light. The only practical short-term solution for the energy/pollution crisis should be nuclear power because it is available, cleaner and safer.