Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Nuclear energy advantages
Is nuclear power beneficial
Nuclear energy advantages
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Nuclear energy advantages
We Need Nuclear Energy
"Minutes ago, the lights flickered, went out briefly, snapped on again. It was a warning. The electricity would last only a few moments longer, and then we would be plunged into three hours of darkness. . . . For the third time today, by official edict, we are taking our turn without electricity. A miners' strike has reduced coal stocks almost to the vanishing point, and most of Britain's electricity comes from coal" (Weaver, "The Search . . .", 652). This could become a common occurrence if the United States doesn't use other energy sources besides fossil fuels. Nuclear energy should continue to be used in the United States.
Nuclear energy is produced in a nuclear reactor. Inside the reactor, uranium undergoes fission. Fission occurs when a fast-moving neutron strikes a nucleus of uranium. The nucleus cannot take the extra neutron, so it splits apart, producing an enormous amount of heat. This takes place in the reactor core, which is surrounded by a large quantity of pressurized water that absorbs the heat. This heat is transferred from this water to the water in a steam generator, where it boils water to steam. The steam turns turbines, which produces electricity (Macaulay, 174-9).
The main benefit of nuclear energy is the amount of energy within uranium. One kilogram of uranium produces 440,000 megajoules of energy. Coal produces a maximum of 30 megajoules, and crude oil produces 46 ("Why . . . "). In other words, one pound of uranium can produce as much energy as 12,000 pounds of coal or 1,200 gallons of oil ("Nuclear . . . "). A one million kilowatt power station uses 2.3 million tons of coal each year. A one million kilowatt nuclear reactor, on the other hand, us...
... middle of paper ...
...uclear Energy." Three Mile Island Student Research Project. [on-line] Available: http://www.ee.rochester.edu:8080/programs/399Projects/TMIStudy/TMIPros.htm
"The Three Mile Island Accident." Three Mile Island Student Research Project. [on-line] Available: http://www.ee.rochester.edu:8080/programs/399Projects/TMIStudy/TMIIncident.html
Weaver, Kenneth F. "The Promise and Peril of Nuclear Energy." National Geographic. April 1979. pp. 459-493.
Weaver, Kenneth F. "The Search For Tomorrow's Power." National Geographic. November 1972. pp. 661-672.
"Why Uranium." Uranium Information Centre. [on-line] Available: http://www.uic.com.au/whyu.htm
Young, Paulette. "Average Price of Coal Delivered to Electric Utilities by Census Division and State, 1987, 1992-1996." [on-line] Available: http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/cia/t92p01.txt
Abortion has been a subject of controversy over the past century. Eventually the decision was settled in favor of pro-choice, in the Supreme Court case Roe versus Wade. At 10:00 a.m. on January 22,1973, the United States Supreme Court announced that the Texas abortion law was unconstitutional. The Court also declared the Georgia abortion law unacceptable. The vote was seven to two, with Burger, Blackmun, Powell, Stewart, Brennan, Douglas, and Marshall in the majority. Rehnquist and White opposed the decision. Abortion throughout the nation had been declared legal. Abortion laws in thirty-one states, including Texas, were overturned. Fifteen states, including Georgia, would have to rewrite their more liberal laws. Three other states, Hawaii, Washington, and Alaska-where rigid abortion laws had been repealed-had residency requirements or other limits that would have to be eliminated. Only the New York law, which allowed abortion without restrictions, was unaffected by the decision (Gold69).
Our country is currently suffering energy-wise, we have been powering with inefficient sources for years now and the harm that it is doing to the country has started to become apparent. Renewable energy is the only way to stop, or at the very least, set back the inevitable downfall of our ecosystem. I think that the next big breakthrough for renewable energy is implementing off-grid communities that use renewable sources as their main sources of power, so that we can potentially escape the energy rut that we got ourselves stuck in. America is wasting their finite resources, such as coal and nuclear, when we could actually be using renewable sources that will never run out. Most of our country’s citizens have never thought about where their energy comes from, or they do not even care.
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.
Stokesbury, James. “World War II and the Nuclear Age.” The History Professor. Jan 2012. 7 Feb
In the modern era, stereotypes seem to be the ways people justify and simplify the society. Actually, “[s]tereotypes are one way in which we ‘define’ the world in order to see it” (Heilbroner 373). People often prejudge people or objects with grouping them into the categories or styles they know, and then treat the types with their experiences or just follow what other people usually do, without truly understand what and why. Thus, all that caused miscommunication, argument or losing opportunities to broaden the life experience. Stereotypes are usually formed based on an individual’s appearance, race, and gender that would put labels on people.
Nuclear power is generated by using electricity created during a controlled fission or fusion reaction (“Nuclear Energy.” Global Issues in Context Online Collection). Nuclear fission is a process that releases energy when a nucleus in one atom is separated into two nuclei. Nuclear fusion occurs when the nuclei of two hydrogen atoms are fused together producing a larger nuclei along with energy (“Nuclear Energy.” Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection). In the 1950s, the use of nuclear power became a realistic idea for countries with nuclear capabilities and nuclear power programs (“Nuclear Energy.” Global Issues in Context Online Collection). The international nuclear program grew rapidly and by 1999 there were 436 nuclear power plants in 32 different counties. The United States, Japan, Canada, Russia, India and France remain the largest users of nuclear energy since the 1990s; however, the dependency on nuclear power varies greatly around the world because of differences in the individual nuclear power programs availability of needed resources (“Nuclear Energy.” Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection).
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.
Instead, the people are actually deceiving themselves into thinking that a certain group acts in a certain manner. This is done so that a group is able to fit a particular stereotype so that ironically the people placing the stereotypes are not perceived in a ce...
“Stereotypes unreliable, exaggerated generalizations about all members of a group that do not take individual differences into account” (Schaefer 40). Stereotypes can be positive, but are usually associated with negative beliefs or actions such as racial profiling.
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...
We depend on energy; nothing in our daily lives could be possible without it. Electricity primarily comes from burning fossil fuels or using nuclear reactors. But the plain truth is, we are running out of fossil fuels. Our known oil deposits will run out in approximately 35 years, and if we increase the use of natural gas and coal to make up for the energy loss, our natural gas will last for 45 years and coal deposits will deplete in 75 years.
To begin, nuclear power is produced by nuclear fission, which is the splitting of an atom to start a chain reaction (“11 Facts”). This chain reaction produces massive amounts of heat. Nuclear reactors take advantage of this heat by pumping water into the reactor, which in turn produces steam. The steam then becomes pressurized through a pipeline and exits into a turbine (“How do Nuclear”). The pressurized steam causes the turbine blades to spin, producing power which is linked to a generator for use in the main power lines. When the steam passes the turbine blades, it goes past cooled pipes and condensates (“How do Nuclear”). After the condensation process is finished and the steam reverts back to water, it is pumped into the reactor again, thus completing the process of producing nuclear-based power.
A water supply is not always readily available in all locations, leaving many animals with out water. Furthermore, with out water, cleaning becomes a low priority. This is very hard on animals especially elephants who bathe frequently in their natural environment.
Electricity has become a basic necessity for most people all over the world. We are depending on electricity for our everyday lives and if one day we did not have electricity we would have difficulty going through the day. I think we need to be more dependent on things that do not use electricity and only use electricity sometimes as a treat so just in case if one day electricity all goes away we could still live comfortably and still have a great life even without it.
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.