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nuclear energy: pros and cons essay
nuclear power pros and cons essay
nuclear energy: pros and cons essay
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Energy, the ability to do work, powers the world around us. Generating of energy enables all electricity, communications, and network functions. Two methods of generating energy are through nuclear power and fossil fuels. Nuclear power and fossil fuels greatly compare regarding power production, cost of production, pollution, and imposing danger.
Nuclear power plants and the burning of fossil fuels both supply significant amounts of power to the Unites States. Nuclear plants produced nineteen percent while fossil fuels produce sixty-six percent of the United State’s electricity. In 2011, the average nuclear power plant produced 12.2 billion kilowatt-hours (Energy Information Administration n.d.). The fossil fuel coal produces 1870 kilowatt-hours per ton (Energy Information Administration, n.d.). This means that a single nuclear power plant is the equivalent to over 6.5 million pounds of coal. Therefore, with regards to the amount of energy being produced, nuclear energy is both a more effective and reliable energy source.
Surprisingly, nuclear power and fossil fuels have similar, extensive, budgets. However, consider that, fossil fuels are much more frequently used and currently provide triple the amount of energy. Both nuclear and fossil fueled power plants require immense funds to manufacture, run, and maintain. It costs billions of dollars to build a nuclear power plant. After construction, to keep the plant operational, it costs forty million dollars to replace one-third of the core, every eighteen months (Nuclear Energy Institute, n.d.). The waste management of a single plant can cost between 300 and 500 million dollars, which includes storage and radioactive treatment (Nuclear Energy Institute, n.d.). Consid...
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... that security fails to intervene and the plant is not shut down. Overall, there is no imminent danger, but the possibility looms over the promising development. The argument opposing fossil fuels is the smoke from coal potentially causes cancer. Conclusively, both methods of energy productions include an extremely low chance of directly causing a fatality.
Engulfed in an energy crisis, the choice between nuclear and fossil fuel power seems clear. Nuclear power offers a clean alternative to the predominate use of fossil fuels. Nuclear energy produces more power, is more cost-effective, and cleaner than all competing energy sources. The only fault it has against fossil fuels is its unlikely, yet ever imposing danger. Despite one major setback, nuclear energy is still a powerful component that should be considered as an absolute alternative to fossil fuels.
Non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels have been used up by society on a daily basis and have forced the world to find a new, clean energy source. The rising price of oil and the constant emission of carbon dioxide are proof that in the future our lives will be much harder to live. One answer to this problem is nuclear power, which has shown its efficiency during the times of World War II but has not been used commercially due to the challenges of dealing with nuclear waste and proliferation. In today?s modern era, nuclear power has been used in liquid metal fast breeder reactors, reactors that use uranium-238 to produce plutonium-239.
Energy is undoubtedly one of the most important issues facing the world today. While fossil fuels may produce enough energy at a low cost, it also has severe environmental impacts on the world. Wind energy is a clean source, but is also extremely expensive to maintain. Nuclear energy may be the best energy alternative to coals and oil, with the ability to produce much more energy with relatively low cost, while also being more environmentally sound.
There are many sources of energy today, and the best source of it is constantly being sought after, one source stands out above the rest. Nuclear energy is simple in theory, yet it may be one of the most controversial sources of power. Nuclear energy works using reactors built to split the atoms (nuclear fission) of the fuel to produce heat. This heat evaporates the cooling agent (usually water) into steam which turns turbines to create electricity. Nuclear energy should be allowed, because it produces an abundance of electricity, as well as being a clean source of energy with no harmful emissions. Nuclear energy is the future of clean, environmentally friendly energy.
Not only is nuclear power friendly to the environment, but it is almost always available, and many countries are starting to use it more. Renewable energy sources like solar and wind en...
“There are 61 commercially operating nuclear power plants with 99 nuclear reactors in 30 states in the United States” (U.S Energy Information Administration). An energy crisis is going on right now. This crisis includes the consumption of fossil fuels that leave the world free of pollution, while still creating the same amount of energy. The idea of using nuclear energy came around the 1960’s as countries who were involved in World War II needed to get an upper hand on weapons, specifically bombs. This was made possible when german scientists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman fired neutrons into uranium 235, which in turn led to the discovery of a self-sustaining chain reaction. This experiment led to the creation of the atomic bomb and the nuclear
Nuclear power is the generation of electricity from an atomic reaction. (World Statistics: Nuclear Energy Around the World n.d.) Though it produces zero carbon emissions there has been a decline in support for nuclear power and increased its support for alternative energies in the pursuit for a fossil free energy sector. Factors that have resulted in the reduction of support for nuclear energy include nuclear accidents and waste and the positives of renewable energy which include clean energy, sustainable and reduced health and environmental risks.
Nuclear energy is a tricky topic. At first thought, the word nuclear tends to throw some for a loop, flashing images of deadly “nukes” and atom bombs in their heads. However, nuclear energy can offer a wide array of benefits that can realistically solve the growing energy crisis our planet will soon face, not to mention the many rewards that nuclear research can lead to. As fossil fuels slowly get burned away, where will we turn to next? Yes, there are several renewable sources of energy that can help, but none that are a clean everyday-everywhere solution. Unfortunately, nuclear power is not without its own issues, as no source of energy is perfect. Nuclear energy can be wildly beneficial, both as an energy source and research port, but at what cost?
Nuclear power has grown to be a big percentage of the world’s energy. As of January 18, 2013 in 31 countries 437 nuclear power plant units with an installed electric net capacity of about 372 GW are in operation and 68 plants with an installed capacity of 65 GW are in 15 countries under construction. As of end 2011 the total electricity production since 1951 amounts to 69,760 billion kWh. The cumulative operating experience amounted to 15, 15,080 years by end of 2012. (European Nuclear Society) The change that nuclear power has brought to the world has led to benefits in today’s energy’s usage.
Nuclear energy is produced during the process named nuclear fission or nuclear fusion. The development of nuclear energy started in the 20th century and there is now worldwide recognition for using nuclear energy. Popular countries that operates nuclear power are United States, France, Japan, and Russia, the nuclear energy generates up to 6% of the world’s electricity supplies. Even though the energy is mostly used by many countries, but it may causes side effect to the living things in the environment. (WNA, 2012)
As the demand for global energy rises, nuclear energy is the world 's largest source of emission-free energy and has more energy than any other fuels on earth in a weight to energy produced ratio. Nuclear power plants are capable of providing larger amount of energy in a minimum amount of space. As the scientists at The Nuclear Fuel Cycle wrote: “Typically, some 44 million kilowatts per hour of electricity are produced from one ton of natural Uranium. The production of this amount of electrical power from fossil fuels would require the burning over 20,000 tons of black coal or 8.5 million cubic meters of
Today’s world faces many problems. Hunger, war and pollution are some common problems that come to mind. Nuclear energy however, should not have to be one of these problems. Nuclear energy has been around since the early 1950s. Over the years, many have debated whether nuclear-produced energy is any better than other energies such as coal-produced energy. While both sides have their pros and cons, nuclear energy, is the overall worst out of the all the energies being produced.
“Every dollar spent on nuclear energy is one less dollar spent on clean renewable energy and one more dollar spent on making the world a comparatively dirtier and a more dangerous place, because nuclear power and nuclear weapons go hand in hand” (Jacobson). Most countries today are becoming more and more dependent on nuclear power as a source of energy because of its high energy output and the availability of uranium used for fuelling nuclear reactors that generate power to provide electricity in households. Although using nuclear power as a source of energy has benefits like this, the danger posed by using nuclear power is too ominous.
The use of nuclear energy has increased in the United States since 1973. Nuclear energy's share of U.S. electricity generation has grown from 4 percent in 1973 to 19 percent in 1998. This is excellent news for the environment. Nuclear energy and hydropower are the cleanest large-scale means of electricity production. Since nuclear power plants do not burn fuel, they emit no combustion byproducts—like carbon dioxide—into the atmosphere (www.nei.org). Nuclear power can come from the fission of Uranium, plutonium or thorium or the fusion of hydrogen into helium. Today uranium (U-235 and U-238) is most commonly used in the production of nuclear energy. The expa...
Media coverage of such cases have made the public less comfortable with the idea of moving further towards nuclear power and they only opt for reducing human activities to reduce global warming. It is true that there have been some notable disasters involving nuclear power, but compared to other power systems, nuclear power has an impressive track record. First, it is less harmful and second, it will be able to cater for the growing world population. Nuclear power produces clean energy and it delivers it at a cost that is competitive in the energy market (Patterson). According to the US Energy Information Administration, there are currently 65 such plants in the Unite States (National Research Council). They produce 19 percent of the total US energy generation.
Nuclear energy is generated by a process called fission. Fission occurs within the reactor of a nuclear power plant when a neutron is fired at an atom of uranium causing it to split and release subsequent neutrons.1 These are able to crash into other uranium atoms causing a chain reaction and releasing a great deal of heat energy.