New form of Energy for Capetown
Capetown is considered to be the largest city in South Africa, having a population of over 2,727,000 inhabits. The energy form used in Capetown at the moment, is Gas Turbine, wich provides most of the city´s electricity. The use of electricity in Capetown is very low compared to western countries, for example there is only one TV for almost ten people, the energy consumption per inhabit a year is about 4000 kWh, wich is 2550 kWh less than the energy consumption per inhabit a year in Paris, France.
Our plan is to built the most effective, cheap also inviromentaly friendliest way to produce energy for the 1 575 000 inhabits of Capetown, we came to the solution: BUILT A NUCLEAR POWER PLANT.
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Picture of Loviisa, Nuclear power plant
We explain our solution by the following facts:
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If we built other forms of plants we would need:
3 Coal power plants or
12 Hydro power plants or
7 Gas turbine power plants or
173 Solar power plants or
4792 Wind power plants.
but we only need one nuclear power plant to provide enough electricity for 1 575 000 people.
Inviromental facts that concerned us:
A nuclear power plant may sound nasty and dangerous, from the naturistic point of view, but that is not a fact. A very good example of this is, the amount of fuel that a 900 MW nuclear power plant needs, wich is about one van of uranium per year, but a coal power plant with same capacity needs about 140 tons of coal per hour, and it also polutes the air by carbon dioxide wich is released when coal’s stored energy is been transformed into heat energy. The carbon dioxide wich is been released in the prosess causes greenhouse effect, wich is the main cause of increased temperature of world. A hydro power plant does not need fuel, but it polutes the sights of a beautiful current river, because of it size, sometimes whole villages have to be moved from the reservoir area, it also effects the biosystem of both up-and down stream for quite a long distance from the location of the dam. A wind power plant is a good solution but it needs space, even one turbine needs about 100x100m space to work properly, if a malfunction appears in the turbine, it can fall down or the blades might break, and fly for thousands of meters. The industry producing the turbines polutes the inviroment, The turbines also cause some problems in TV and radio links.
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.
Central Idea: Nuclear energy only contributes a small amount to the world’s electricity yet it has hazards and dangers that far out-way its benefits. There are many other alternative power producing sources that can produce energy more efficiently and more safely than nuclear power plants can.
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...
Many believe that nuclear power plants are a hazard to the people that live around them and the environment in which they are built. However, these assumptions are based mostly on the fact that the nuclear reactors and nuclear power plants of today are built to the same standards that the old nuclear plants from many years ago. Nuclear power today is designed to be much safer than outdated nuclear power plants and have a very minimal chance of causing a nuclear catastrophe. Nuclear power plants are a safe and viable option for generating electricity for the foreseeable future.
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.
1. As I mentioned previously, there are 440 nuclear reactors worldwide generating 2,500TWh (terawatt hours) per year which is much more than the other renewable energy. Energy Monitor Worldwide stated that “In the U.S. nuclear plants generate 54 percent of the state’s electricity and 97 percent of its low carbon electricity.”
: The world has been using nuclear power plants for many years. 1 in 5 households in the U.S. depend on nuclear power for their source of electricity. That makes a lot of people who are dependent on this type of energy source.
Nuclear power is an unsafe reactor due to uranium being unstable. No one is responsible for physical, environmental, or health damages in the cause of an accident due to all of the liability steps that need to be taken (Bennett). It pumps heavy metals and pollutants into the waters, to ensure that no radiation is being pumped into the environment along with thermal pollution. Nuclear power is an unsafe electricity source because it creates known and unknown risks to the earth.
“On April 26, 1986, a sudden surge of power during a reactor systems test destroyed Unit 4 of the nuclear power plant station at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in the former Soviet Union. The accident and the fire that followed released massive amounts of radioactive material into the environment.” (U.S.NRC) Around the world nuclear power plants are used to substitute natural fossil fuels due to the increase in expense. Although power plants are better in cost they release SO2 and NOx into the air that form various acidic compounds and particles which remain in the air and ozone for days and even years. They come down in the form of acid rain which can lead to various health problems and deaths. Power generation is a significant source of pollutants that can impair the environment, economy, and human health.
In nuclear energy there are many benefits. One benefit is that nuclear energy is the world’s largest source of emission-free energy. This is because of the U.S. Clean Air Act of 1970 regulates limits on the emission of certain pollutants. 20% of the nation’s electricity is, and will be, produced by non-emitting nuclear energy. Nuclear energy in place of other types of energy impacts the environment by keeping the air clean, preventing acid rain, preserving the Earth’s climate, and much more. Nuclear energy also has the lowest bad impact on the environment and is the most eco-efficient energy source because it produces the most electricity relative to its environmental impact. On the other hand, nuclear energy can have inherent risks. Nuclear energy has health effects of radiation containing subatomic particles traveling at the velocity of light. This radiation can penetrate deep inside the human body and can result in cancer or even genetic diseases. This radiation can be produced during routine plant operation, accidents in power plants or in transporting radioactive ...
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.
Building a nuclear power plant requires less land space than solar or wind farms. With the current overcrowding issue in the Philippines, taking up less space for energy production is more ideal and less insulting to Filipino families who live under bridges just to fit in the cities. It is also a better option for manufacturers because less land space means less costs at least in terms of land ownership.
According to Community Science Action Guides, nuclear power plants are cheaper to run, require smaller area than its competitors, and produce the most energy than environmental impact ratio. Nuclear power plants should be used in the United States based on three reasons: spatial area/location of use, cost efficiency, and environment friendly. To prove that nuclear power plants is a better energy solution, it will be compared to other major energy resources such as wind turbines, solar farms, dams, and biomass technologies.
Though it might seem that the world’s energy supply is secure as of the present, this issue is something that is beginning to worry even the richest states. “Countries as far apart as South Africa and Tajikistan are plagued by power cuts and there have been riots in several nations because of disruptions to electricity” and “rich states [are] no longer strangers to periodic blackouts” (ElBaradei). If we look again at the breakdown of U.S. electricity generation by energy source, it is evident that nuclear power is the next most substantial chunk of energy generation, with other renewables weighing in far behind that. I believe this begs the question, why do we not expand nuclear power to encompa...