Nuclear energy is the energy released during the process of nuclear fusion. The nuclear fusion process, is a nuclear reaction in which atomic nuclei of low atomic number fuse to form a heavier nucleus with the release of energy. As of today, nuclear energy is considered as one of the most environmentally friendly source of energy as it produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions during the production of electricity as compared to traditional sources like coal power plants. Nuclear fission is the process that is used in nuclear reactors to produce high amount of energy using element called uranium. It is the energy that is stored in the nucleus of an atom (ConserveEnergyFuture).
Although the process seems simple and efficient, there are some cons with using nuclear energy to power the earth. For instance after the uranium is used, it needs to be disposed of, and the disposal of nuclear waist is not only dangerous; it is unhealthy for people to work around and unhealthy for the environment. One of the biggest issues is environmental impact in relation to uranium. The process of mining and refining uranium hasn’t been a clean process. Actually transporting nuclear fuel to and from plants represents a pollution hazard. Also, once the fuel is used, you can’t simply take it to the landfill – it’s radioactive and dangerous (ConserveEnergyFuture). There is also the fact that the nuclear power is used to make powerful weapons, and if we let this energy get into the wrong hands we could look at ourselves facing an overall nuclear war.
However nuclear energy is not totally bad. For instance, its more proficient then fossil fuels, we have enough uranium to power the earth for another 70 to 80 years, low pollution which would help the us with global warming, and it has lower operating cost then fossil fuels. For instance, A number of nuclear energy innovations have made it a much more feasible choice than others. They have high energy density as compared to fossil fuels. The amount of fuel required by nuclear power plant is comparatively less than what is required by other power plants as energy released by nuclear fission is approximately ten million times greater than the amount of energy released by fossil fuel atom (ConserveEnergyFuture).
In the past we have had some major issues with Nuclear energy that have created some major disasters in countries around the world. Lets look at what happened in the Ukraine in the city of Chernobyl. In the year 1986, he Chernobyl Nuclear disaster is widely considered to have been the worst power plant accident in history, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other being the Fukushima, Daiichi disaster in 2011). The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles. The official Soviet casualty count of 31 deaths has been disputed and long-term effects such as cancers and deformities are still being accounted for (ProcessIndustryForum). This is the perfect example of how unhealthy having nuclear waist around humans can be. The workers in the plant have been effected with diagnosis of cancers and deformities. Although the energy is efficient, when misused or there is an error in the process; nuclear energy can be incredibly dangerous.
This doesn’t just happen to foreign countries around the world, even the United States has had its own issues with Nuclear Energy. In 1961, the US military built a nuclear energy plant known as SL_1, to experiment with the nuclear energy. It was only a low powered nuclear energy plant that was built in the state of Idaho (Wikipedia). Due to an improper removal of a rod of uranium, three operators were killed in the steam explosion/ meltdown that occurred. This is the only nuclear disaster that has occurred in the United States, however it is listed as the 7th worst nuclear accident according to Process Industry Forums top ten worst nuclear disasters around the world.
Works Cited
“Pros and Cons of Nuclear Energy – Conserve Energy Future.”ConserveEnergyFuture. Conserve Energy Future, 06 Mar. 2015. Web. 03 Mar. 2016.
“Top 10 Nuclear Disasters in the World.” Process Industry Forum Top 10 Nuclear Disasters Comments. Process Industry Forum, 20 May 2013. Web. 03 Mar. 2016.
“SL-1.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Web. 03 Mar. 2016.
Thank you for your interesting post. I was surprised by the image of the rod blowing up in Idaho; I did not know this happened. It is very scary!
I agree that nuclear energy is not totally bad. However, we have to consider that if we use nuclear rather than other, safer energy (like solar), then we have to build more nuclear plants. Every single nuclear plant creates more risk. Even Fukushima, which was run well, created a problem simply because of a freak earthquake plus tsunami situation (like you mention). Maybe we should leave the plants we have there now, but just limit the number of new ones we build.