Energy runs the world. Everything uses energy. Whether it is something as simple as a person getting out of bed, or as complex as providing power to sustain an entire town, energy provides the source to get these things done. This is the reason that politicians and governments invest so much time creating energy plans and platforms, and travel to different energy conferences around the world. It is also the reason that when a country starts making changes to its energy plan it is big news. Japan now finds itself in this situation. With nuclear energy no longer the sure source of power that it was in the past Japan finds itself rethinking its energy plans. This however, is not an easy task. With a complicated energy past and a nation and government rife with indecision, finding the right type of energy sources is proving to be quite the difficult undertaking. That being said Japan should continue to use nuclear energy because its benefits towards the economy and environment outweigh the benefits other energy sources would provide. Japan has always been a country that has had a struggle finding sources to fill its energy needs. The islands of Japan never had the resources needed to create energy so they always had to spend a fortune on imports in order to get the resources they needed to provide power to the country. This is how the idea of nuclear energy for Japan came into play. Nuclear energy would provide a cheaper way to provide energy to Japan so that they no longer had to spend as much money importing all types of fossil fuels. All they would have to do was build nuclear reactors that would provide a cheap energy supply to help give power to the citizens throughout the country. Getting the citizens and government to agree t... ... middle of paper ... ...Reactors.” Polymic. Mic Network Inc., 11 May. 2012. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. Maitra, Ramtanu. “Japan Without Nuclear Energy is a Disaster For The World.” Executive Intelligence Review. n.p., 27 Sept. 2013. Web. 7 Oct. 2013. Richter, Wolf. “The End of Nuclear Energy in Japan?” Testosterone Pit. Wolf Richter, 3 Oct. 2013. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. Shah, Raj. “Without Nuclear Power Japan’s CO2 Emissions Rise.” Investor Intel. ProEdge Media Corp, 4 Oct. 2013. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. Tabuchi, Hiroko. “Japan’s New Leader Endorses Nuclear Plants.” New York Times. New York Times, 30 Dec. 2012. Web. 2 Nov. 2013. World Nuclear Association. “Nuclear Power in Japan.” World Nuclear Association. World Nuclear Association, Nov. 2013. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. World Nuclear Association. “Safety of Nuclear Power Reactors.” World Nuclear Association. World Nuclear Association, Oct. 2013. Web. 29 Nov. 2013.
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.
Duncan . " Nuclear Power: The End of the War Against Japan. " BBC News. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/nuclear_01.shtml (accessed April 16, 2014).
Sabin, Burritt. "The War's Legacy [sic]: Dawn of a tragic era", Japan Times, February 8, 2004 (
Angelina Jolie said, “Without pain, there would be no suffering, without suffering we would never learn from our mistakes. To make it right, pain and suffering is the key to windows, without it, there is no way of life.” On August 6, 1945 the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a small city whose death toll rises to 90,000-166,000. On August 9th, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, 60,000–80,000 . In total, 15 million people lost their lives during the duration of the Second World War. In John Hersey's book, Hiroshima, he provides a detailed account of six people and how the bombing of Hiroshima affected their lives. John Heresy felt it was important to focus his story on six individuals to create a remembrance that war affects more than just nations and countries, but actual human beings. Moreover, the book details the effect the bomb had on the city of Hiroshima. “Houses all around were burning, and the wind was now blowing hard.” (Hersey, 27). Before the bomb, there existed few laws to govern the use of a weapon of this magnitude because of the complexity and modern technology that the bomb used. To address the fears of the use of the atomic bomb, new laws were created to govern its use. The atom bomb should have been dropped on Japan in order to prevent the further use of such a destructive force.
Carbon, Max W. Nuclear Power: Villain or Victim?: Our Most Misunderstood Source of Electricity. Second ed. Madison, WI: Pebble Beach, 1997.
One of the many benefits of Nuclear energy is that it is completely emission free, in fact, more than 70% of the clean energy produced in the United States comes from nuclear (“11 Facts about Nuclear Energy”) With those lack of emissions we will see a reduction in the
After the United States developed the atomic at the end of World War II, interest in nuclear technology increased exponentially. People soon realized that nuclear technology could be used for electricity, as another alternative to fossil fuels. Today, nuclear power has its place in the world, but there is still a lot of controversy over the use of nuclear energy. Things such as the containment of radiation and few nuclear power plant accidents have given nuclear power a bad image. However, nuclear power is a reliable source of energy because it has no carbon emissions, energy is available at any time, little fuel is needed for a lot of energy, and as time goes on, it is becoming safer and safer.
The purpose of this report is to investigate the different views and opinions on the safeness and cost effectiveness of nuclear power compared to other forms of energy. This report will explain the issues and background of the debate, the importance of the issue, and the parties who are involved in this debate with their thoughts.
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.
The “World Nuclear Power Plants in Operation”. Nuclear Energy Institute. April. The. 2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'.
Nuclear energy has is an overall success and continues to be because it is a reliable, efficient energy source that produces minimal pollution. Although it is a efficient energy source, it is also a massive destructive force that has been used in the past and can be used in the future if not properly defended against. America today can learn from instances in the 20th century such as the atomic bomb drops, exploration of fusion reactions, the knowledge gained from the three mile island accident, and from espionage. Nuclear technology is basically that manipulation of atoms in their current state. Usually radioactive elements such as high-grade plutonium or uranium are used in order to create a massive radioactive reaction that have the potential to obliterate any object in its way leaving a lasting negative effect on the environment. Nuclear energy was mainly researched for the atomic bomb droppings that occurred in 1945 as a result of Japanese oppression during World War II. The science of atomic manipulation, atomic radiation, nuclear fission and nuclear fusion was first developed in 1895. Research began to significantly speed up when the government took a large interest in the destructive force that nuclear weapons had the potential to hold. The only reason that the world ever had the experience of nuclear energy was because of World War II and oppression. Nuclear Energy came with a price of thousands of lives, that were not rightfully taken, but without those lives lost, our world would be different today, and we continue to learn from the mistakes and from the successes that we have had with nuclear technology.
The use of nuclear power in the mid-1980s was not a popular idea on account of all the fears that it had presented. The public seemed to have rejected it because of the fear of radiation. The Chernobyl accident in the Soviet Union in April of 1986 reinforced the fears, and gave them an international dimension (Cohen 1). Nevertheless, the public has to come to terms that one of the major requirements for sustaining human progress is an adequate source of energy. The current largest sources of energy are the combustion of coal, oil, and natural gas. Fear of radiation may push nuclear power under the carpet but another fear of the unknown is how costly is this going to be? If we as the public have to overcome the fear of radiation and costly project, we first have to understand the details of nuclear energy. The known is a lot less scary then the unknown. If we could put away all the presumptions we have about this new energy source, then maybe we can understand that this would be a good decision for use in the near future.
The energy industry is beginning to change. In today’s modern world, governments across the globe are shifting their focuses from traditional sources of power, like the burning coal and oil, to the more complex and scientific nuclear power supply. This relatively new system uses powerful fuel sources and produces little to no emissions while outputting enough energy to fulfill the world’s power needs (Community Science, n.d.). But while nuclear power seems to be a perfect energy source, no power production system is without faults, and nuclear reactors are no exception, with their flaws manifesting in the form of safety. Nuclear reactors employ complex systems involving pressure and heat. If any of these systems dysfunctions, the reactor can leak or even explode releasing tons of highly radioactive elements into the environment. Anyone who works at or near a nuclear reactor is constantly in danger of being exposed to a nuclear incident similar to the ones that occurred at the Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi plants. These major accidents along with the unresolved problems with the design and function of nuclear reactors, as well as the economic and health issues that nuclear reactors present serve to show that nuclear energy sources are not worth the service that they provide and are too dangerous to routinely use.
Nuclear power, the use of exothermic nuclear processes to produce an enormous amount of electricity and heat for domestic, medical, military and industrial purposes i.e. “By the end of 2012 2346.3 kilowatt hours (KWh) of electricity was generated by nuclear reactors around the world” (International atomic energy agency Vienna, 2013, p.13). However, with that been said it is evident that the process of generating electricity from a nuclear reactor has numerous health and environmental safety issues.
The greatest disadvantages of nuclear energy are the risks posed to mankind and the environment by radioactive materials. ‘On average a nuclear plant annually generates 20 metric tons of used nuclear fuel cla...