The Pros And Cons Of Nuclear Energy

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

According to the article At U.S. Nuclear Sites, Preparing for the Unlikely they say “The fact that the odds of a nuclear accident are unknowable and the risks hard to measure make it in some ways more frightening than the known — and greater — risks of driving without a seat belt or breathing the fumes from a coal-burning power plant.” (11) This emphasizes the fact that when using nuclear power you will never be aware of when an accident or explosion can happen. For example, in the article Nuclear Power Safety Concerns they mention the explosion at Chernobyl in northern Ukraine. The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel. Furthermore, the resulting steam explosion and fires released at least 5% of the radioactive reactor core into the atmosphere and downwind and two Chernobyl plant workers died on the night of the accident, and a further 28 people died within a few weeks as a result of acute radiation poisoning. This exemplifies how an accidental explosion of a nuclear power plant was unplanned, killed people, and left over radiation on to the site till this day which people had died

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

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.

The only two nuclear weapons ever used in history killed an estimated 226,000 people.These two bombs are a prime example of the fact that nuclear power is dangerous and should not be handled carelessly.Not only are nuclear weapons dangerous,but nuclear power plants and reactors are also a threat to the human race.Nuclear power provides about 11 percent of the world’s electricity every year which means we can not completely get rid of it due to the amount of energy it produces.On the other hand nuclear weapons are dangerous and do not help the human race in any way therefore they should all be destroyed and never used again.Not only will nuclear weapons eventually wipe out the human race,but there are also huge effects to the environment that

Much of the public is weary of nuclear energy because of past events, though they know very little about how it works or the safety measures that accompany it. A large power plant and the knowledge that one just like it melted down causing mass panic across the globe is enough to put any person on edge. Instead of scrapping the idea of nuclear power all together, researchers have come up with safer and smaller reactors that should be able to calm the public’s worries. Nuclear power has too many benefits to give up on the idea fully. Large nuclear plants are where many of the fears about nuclear energy have stemmed; new advancements and technologies, however, have emerged that could quell many of the concerns of the public. Small modular reactors

Nuclear Power has been a controversial topic for a ling time. With disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima creating heavy skepticism and mistrust in nuclear power from the masses. Skipping past the heavily debated topic of using nuclear power at all, theres the question of building nuclear plants, when a more conventional plant such a a coal plant would suffice. To summarize, should nuclear power be used and developed when compared to its competition? To Clarify, by 'competition' I mean conventional methods of power generation, namely coal and gas.

Nuclear power requires high safety level as demonstrated by the commercial operation and accumulated experience of nuclear power plants. Over the years, three serious accidents, the Chernobyl in 1986, Three Mile Island in 1979, and the Fukushima leak 2011 have characterized the industrial use of nuclear energy

“Following a major earthquake, a 15-metre tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling of three Fukushima Daiichi reactors, causing a nuclear accident on 11 March 2011. All three cores largely melted in the first three days.” said the World Nuclear Association in their article, “Fukushima Accident”. The Fukushima nuclear accident occurred on March 11, 2011 and ranked a 7 on the INES (International Nuclear Events Scale). After two weeks had passed, three reactors were stabilized with water and by July, had been cooled with recycled water from the new water treatment plant. No deaths or cases of radiation sickness have been reported from the nuclear accident, but over 100,000 people were evacuated from their homes. There have been well over 1,000 deaths from those maintaining the evacuation, compared to the risk from radiation if early citizen return had been allowed. Some nuclear accidents are because of human error and can be prevented. Unfortunately, this accident could not have been prevented, because it was caused by a natural disaster. This is the main disadvantage of using nuclear energy as a power source- nuclear accidents. Another disadvantage is that yes, we will in fact eventually run out of Uranium-235. But besides that, there are some pretty good advantages, too- for example, Uranium-235 in a nuclear reactor can produce 3.7 million times as much energy as the same amount of coal would. And in comparison to coal or other

Nuclear power is a very intriguing alternative energy source. I find that the more that I learn about nuclear power, the more I realize that my knowledge has just skimmed the surface of what there is to know about the energy source. The most surprising fact about nuclear power that Mycle Schneider mentioned in one of his interviews was that all nuclear reactors have a life expectancy. On average, the typical nuclear reactor has an operational design basis of approximately 40 years. As of right now, the average age of all operational nuclear reactors worldwide is approximately 28.5 years old. This means that within the next decade, we could begin to see the majority of these nuclear plants being decommissioned. Therefore, when the time comes,

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.

With global temperatures increasing and climate change controversies arising, the world seeks a clean, reliable energy source; could nuclear energy be the answer? Due to massive amounts of carbon dioxide emitted into the air by our main energy provider, the coal power plant, society is yearning for a cleaner form of energy. Nuclear power plants release minimal amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Nuclear energy, in the public eye, has a bad reputation because of accidents that have occurred in recent history (Fukushima, Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl). With the current climate crisis in full effect, the thought of nuclear energy has been revived. Society has become so dumbfounded by global warming that nuclear energy is being perceived as the apparent solution. The idea that nuclear energy should replace fossil fuels and coal as our main energy source is downright blasphemous. Nuclear energy shouldn’t be used because it’s dangerous, dirty, and immensely expensive and time consuming to start; therefore, the drawbacks greatly outweigh the benefits of nuclear energy.

With any large energy producing facility there are risks. The truth is that accidents do happen at nuclear power plants and at other facilities all the time. An example of this was the accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania where there was a partial meltdown in March 1979. More recently was the worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl. Statistical data for 1995, released by the International Atomic Energy Agency early in 1996, indicated that there were a total of 437 operational nuclear power stations in 31 countries with years of experience. Chernobyl was the only plant that injured the public. Thus, judging by the data, that is a good record for a source of energy.

Nuclear energy was sort out as a weapon of mass destruction during the time of the Second world war, but due to the rapid advancement of technology. Nuclear energy has become an alternative resource for power throughout the world, but with many drawbacks. Professional Nuclear Energy experts have shown to believe the detriments of using nuclear energy by being very highly priced, with the effect of leading to accidents, and causing harm to the community and environment that surrounds the power plant. The heavy cost of nuclear energy isn’t from the material it uses, but the construction and process of building a nuclear plant.

Mitigation of the climate change problem will require a transformation of world energy supply, in which fossil fuels are largely replaced by energy sources that do not emit CO [1]. Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions that delivers nuclear energy to produce heat, which most frequently is then used in steam turbines to generate electricity in a nuclear power plant. As nuclear power produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions during production of electricity as compared to other traditional sources like coal power plant, it is considered one of the most environmentally friendly sources of energy [3]. However, it is confronting with many challenges [2].