Persuasive Essay On Nuclear Power Plants

Should nuclear energy be used? Throughout the article “Nowhere to go”, the author objectively reviews the use of nuclear energy, using the text and graphics to provide details that demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages of its use. Nevertheless, the consequences of using nuclear energy outweigh the benefits. One of these consequences is that working with nuclear energy can cause many health problems. The text states, “Dangers include radiation sickness, cancers, and other health problems. High level radioactive waste can present hazards ‘for a million years or more,’ Kamps says.” This means that using nuclear energy can cause health problems for future generations.

For years, many scientists, environmentalists, and energy experts have been studying how human’s creation and use of energy has impacted our environment. These experts have discovered some troubling facts. Most of our country’s energy is created from burning fossil fuels that pollute our atmosphere, contribute to global warming, and thus threaten the future of our planet. But there’s a safe and effective solution to this problem: nuclear power. Nuclear power should be used more in the United States to create clean power that doesn’t pollute our environment, in order to help combat climate change.

Thesis Statement. Nuclear energy is a double edged sword. It is every country’s right to own nuclear weapons as a defence mechanism against any outside threat. A country that owns a nuclear weapon is feared and respected by all other countries and no one will think of starting a war or getting into a political or cultural chaos with this nation. Apart from nuclear energy being used to

Nuclear power, the type of energy that sits on the edge of humanity’s greatest hopes, and its darkest fears. With a country such as the United States continuing to expand its industry, housing, agriculture and commercial buildings there is a need for more and more energy each year. Nuclear power is one of the many ways the United States gets its energy. Nevertheless, it is one of the most controversial means of energy production. The main concern with nuclear energy is the nuclear waste that is produced along with it. The potential health and environmental risks posed by nuclear waste is what truly scares some of the American public. Therefore, is the amount of energy output by nuclear power plants outweigh the potential risks that nuclear waste can have on human health and the environment? Nuclear power plants should be kept as a means of generating energy for the United States, however, transportation and storage of nuclear waste needs to continuously be checked for safer alternatives.

One nuclear power plant with a footprint of one square mile provides the energy equivalent of 20 square miles of solar panels, 1200 windmills, or the entire Hoover Dam. All of this power comes without any greenhouse gas emission although they do produce nuclear waste. Unfortunately most nuclear energy comes at the risk of a potential nuclear meltdown like Chernobyl or Fukushima. While nuclear meltdowns may be rare there does is a potential nuclear fuel that promises even cheaper energy, with no chance of a nuclear meltdown, and produces significantly less nuclear waste. Thorium is a radioactive element close to uranium on the periodic table, named after the

There are two pivotal arguments against nuclear energy: the public’s perception and nuclear waste. In arguments pertaining to this topic, it is commonly asked as the waste continues to build up, what can be done with it? However, Bennie Olsen stated, “All

Despite the potential harmful effects of nuclear energy, it is a necessary step for this country and world to take for the future. William Tucker holds this position in his article, “Why I Still Support Nuclear Power, Even After Fukushima.” This article made its appearance on the April 23, 2011 edition of the Wall street Journal.

Secondly, the book points out that the collective cost of nuclear energy production is not economical, which is unfounded. Even under favorable assumptions for wind and solar energy plants, such as an increase in capacity factor, it is shown that the total net benefits of a nuclear plant (at $804,763 per MW per year) clearly outweighs wind plant (at $283,311 per MW per year) and solar plant (at $113,349 per MW per year).6 This implies that the benefits a nuclear plant derived from reducing carbon emissions and having a high capacity factor clearly outweighs the insurance and operating costs of a nuclear

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.

Nuclear energy has been used since 1895 to create weapons that could destroy men by the millions. Scientists later transformed this destructive weapon into a new form of usable, renewable energy. Nuclear energy is energy created by harnessing the energy produced by the nuclear reactions that take place inside the nucleus of the Uranium Isotope 235, ("Nuclear Energy"). Nuclear energy is one attempt to decrease the rate at which nonrenewable fossil fuels are being consumed. Some believe nuclear energy to be an environmentally friendly and self sustaining way to produce energy; however, there are a countless number of social and economically risks to consider; ultimately, the detrimental effects power plant leaks and explosions have on the human body, the cost it takes to produce the plants, and the production of nuclear waste, should be enough to persuade one to turn away from using nuclear energy as a source of power.

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.

Nuclear energy holds great interest for those looking for a sustainable energy source. Our current energy requirements are met by the use of fossil fuels. However, there exist some substantial problems with fossil fuels. Not only are they limited, but they also contribute to the carbon dioxide emissions and thus to global warming. Use of nuclear energy will cut the percentage of carbon emission as it does not involve any burning. Instead, the splitting of nuclei of atoms provides the energy. Using nuclear power instead of coal for electricity generation will cut 2.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide emission (Brook). As with any type of alternate energy proposals, there are issues involved. One of such issue for nuclear energy is waste

The radioisotopes found in the nuclear wastes have a long life. This means that they may stay in the atmosphere in some ways or the other. In essence, this makes the soil and water to be contaminated. The mixed wastes cause chemical reactions and may lead to dangerous complications. The wastes are usually buried deep in the earth surface. However, the residues can be used to make deadly weapons of mass destruction. As much as nuclear energy is environmentally friendly, it is still prone to accidents. Some measures have been put in place to prevent accidents. However, the risk of more recent Fukushima has ben an associate to nuclear energy. Smaller radiations can leak and may have devastating effects. The symptoms are inclusive of vomiting, nausea, diarrhea and fatigue. On one way, it may solve the energy problems but we must be careful not to solve one problem and create another problem (Durrani &

The burning of fossil fuels has been the main source of energy in the world for too long. It’s the worst cause of pollution in the world, it damages the ozone layer, and it kills people. Good thing there is another type of energy source we can use, Nuclear energy. Nuclear energy is a much more reliable source of energy. But like everything on this Earth there’s a bad side to it. The thing though is that the cons of Nuclear energy aren’t even that bad. For a person to start feeling symptoms of radiation exposure they would have needed to have been exposed to 0.25Sv and for death to occur above 10Sv. For instance, a year of radiation exposure from Nuclear Power Plants is 0.001Sv and radiation exposure per dental X-ray is 0.0004Sv. It would take 625 x-rays to start feeling effects of radiation and 25,000 to kill you. No one in their lifetime will take any amount of x-rays close to 625 and it would take 250 years of living near a Nuclear Power Plant to feel effects of radiation. So it’s safe to say no one is getting hurt from nuclear energy. Nuclear energy can be found from almost everywhere and is not going anywhere anytime soon, small amounts can produce much more energy than fossil fuels, and it only emits little to no greenhouses gases. If you ask me the better choice is obvious, nuclear energy is the better option. Nuclear energy is the better option and is more important because it helps fight against climate change, it is competitive relative to other electricity

It is no doubt that Nuclear is very powerful and that it can cause some good things to happen but we can not ignore the horrible things that it has done to our planet and ecosystem. There are two sides to this argument if we should close nuclear power plants or we shouldn't in my personal opinion I think that we should close these plants. But before I had to make my decision I had to do some research on both sides so here is what I found,