The Effects Of Radioactive Wastes On The Environment

The beginnings of the Nuclear Age started when Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt warning him of a dangerous weapon the Nazis had begun researching, known as the atomic bomb. (1) Though, when President Roosevelt first read this letter, he was too preoccupied with events in Europe to be bothered with such ideas. He at the time did not take the creation of such weapon to seriously, nor did he believe America had the resources for such a task. (2) Finally, on October 19, 1939 President Roosevelt wrote back to Einstein stating that the United States had begun to research the power of uranium. (2) With the help of the British, whom reluctantly gave the United States leadership on this project, in June of 1942 the Manhattan Project had begun, though most of the world had no idea that this was even happening, not even Vice President Truman. (2)

We have not found a way to dispose of nuclear waste produced from nuclear reactors. In Canada, there is about 200 million tons of radioactive waste from uranium mining. We also have not found a way to dispose of the waste, safely, from nuclear power stations. This waste will remain active for hundreds of thousands of years. In 1978, in Canada, the Ontario Royal Commission recommended that world class ecologists should study the long-term problem of finding a way to safely contain radioactive waste and so that the future of nuclear power can be assessed. The government has ignored all of these requests. In 1975, they evacuated St.Mary’s school in Port Hope because high level of contamination in the cafeteria. In the construction of that building and many other buildings in town large volumes of radioactive wastes, they soon learned, had been used .The world is relying on a brighter, smarter future generation to solve our problem of creating a way to dispose of this waste. When we think of the world as a biodome, we are stuck on earth; we cannot just destroy it and then jump to another planet. Currently we are digging ourselves in a deeper and deeper hole. We have already created a mess that we cannot take care of. This is unfair to the next

These ventures into atomic agriculture and medicine were primarily fueled by organizations like the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and were used to justify a reason for atomic research that did not revolve around atomic weapons. This concern about the uses of atomic energy is further reflected in Eisenhower’s “Atom’s Peace” speech when he says, “Against the dark background of the atomic bomb, the United States does not wish merely to present strength, but also the desire and the hope for peace.” This quotation shows the need for peaceful applications of atomic energy.

The end of World War II had many nations shocked and pondering in 1940’s. Thoughts of a weapon that can erase an entire populous in a short amount of time prompted many nations to consider nuclear armament. This originated from the devastating events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which brought the world somber, and fearful. Some individuals recognized this and did take measures in order to regulate and prevent future use of these weapons. The Acheson-Lilienthal Report was a document that took a stand against national independent control of atomic weapons by proposing compromise between the U.S, and U.S.S.R., the failure to secure the document prompted the Cold War era and Nuclear Arms race, this became a foundation for further agreements and

Nuclear Waste The essay “Nuclear Waste” by Ricard A. Muller talks about the controversial matter of the disposure of radioactive waste. Despite the overwhelming concerns of citizens, Richard Muller believes the dangers associated with the transportation and deposit of nuclear waste is not as paramount as the issue may seem. The concepts that seems most alarming to the public are the number of year it takes for the radioactivity of the waste to subside and where it will be stored in the mean time that will not affect their safety. As Muller explains, ”Even after 100,000 years the radiation will still be above 10% of the level it had when it left the reactor.

Some scientists mind people that the South Australia Outback is the best, the safest, the most geologically and environmentally stable place on the planet to store the nuclear waste. (Valente,2016) However, as we know, Nuclear Waste is generally mixture of solids, liquids and gases which are produced during the generation of nuclear energy during fission, mining of uranium, nuclear research and weapons production. It is radioactive and that is the primary cause of the negative effects on human health and bodies. When humans are exposed to moderate radiation for a long time, it can lead to permanent problems and even lead to death. Nuclear waste radiation can damage or kill cells of people. Cancer is the primary health effect from radiation

It was first developed in the 1940s, and during the Second World War to 1945 research initially focussed on producing bombs which released great energy from the atoms of particular isotopes of either uranium or plutonium.

After World War II, countries raced to develop and hoard nuclear weapons. Seemingly learning nothing from the atomic bombs detonated on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, nuclear weapons became necessary for smaller countries to have when their larger neighbors, like Soviet Russia and the United States, had enough to kill the world a few times over. America began to understand the gravity of nuclear arms when less predictable countries became armed similarly. In 1968, the nuclear Nonproliferation Act was signed by many nations, but through the decades violations of the treaty have been common .

The end of World War 2 also marked the beginning of the Nuclear Age. And immediately, military research labs, bomb-making facilities, and power plants that

On 11 March 2011 in Japan, the Fukushima nuclear power plant was seriously damaged by an earthquake and the radioactive substances were leaked to the surrounding. Local people had to evacuate away and up till now they are living under threat.

The prime location of nuclear weapons testing for over thirty years, one Nevada facility has within its boundaries an extremely high concentration of radioactive substances from atmospheric and underground testing. Although most atmospheric nuclear weapons testing ended in 1964 with the Limited Test Ban Treaty, the radioactive fallout in regions such as this one will still be around for centuries to come. According to one of my sources, 430,000 people will die from cancer induced by the fallout in this century. Moreover, 2.4 million people in all will suffer the same fate well into the next millennium (Schull 14). Even as the radioactive risk from the air declines in the far future, another radioactive hazard may replace it from the ground. It is ironically disturbing that we have taken so long to wholeheartedly even acknowledge of attempt to do something about these concerns. As long ago as 1961, the United Nations General Assembly, resolution 1653(XVI) was adopted. The resolution states that:

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s conquest for nuclear energy technology commenced during the 1950’s, inspired by U.S President Dwight Eisenhower’s program called “Atoms for Peace”. This program fabricated a plan in which the U.S Atomic Energy Commission would lend Iran as much as 13.2 pounds of low-enriched uranium in order to further develop their nuclear industries, including health care and medicine.i Two years following the agreement, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi established the Tehran Nuclear Research Center at the Tehran University, and the United States to arranged to supply a five-megawatt reactor. Several years later, in July of 1968, Iran signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

The steady rise of global energy consumption sparked a correlating increase in the need for reliable and viable sources of electricity and heat. Following the discovery that radioactive elements posses the power to release energy in abundance, a decades-long series of nuclear power-related events led to the creation of the Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant in the 1950s. Soon after, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was founded and military nuclear power programs were instated. The swift

Nuclear energy has been around longer than people think. In 1934 Physicist Enrico Fermi experiments in Rome showing that Neutrons can split many kind s of atoms. In 1946 the Atomic Energy Commission was created to explore peaceful uses of energy and nuclear energy development. In 1951 an experimental Breeder reactor produced the first electric power from nuclear energy in

Most of the early research done on nuclear energy consisted of trying to make nuclear weapons. The experiments were performed in New Mexico under the name of the Manhattan Project. Their efforts were a success with the creation of the first atom bomb. After World War II though, the use of nuclear energy was turned more peaceful uses. In 1946 Congress created the Atomic Energy