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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.
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.
A. Attention Material: Have you ever thought about energy? Where it comes from and how it powers things? Nuclear energy is one of the many types of energy sources in the world today. It is a non-renewable resource such as coal and natural gas. The first nuclear reactor ever created by man was built in December of 1942. The discovery of building a nuclear power plant was discovered over 150 years ago (Nuclear Power: Villain or Victim?, p. 15).
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.
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.
Since the dawn of civilization, all living (and some non-living) things have needed energy. When humans discovered fire, the first form of harnessed energy, it made it easier to stay warm, prepare food, make weapons, etc. Since then, humankind has been inventing new ways to harness energy and use it to our advantage. Now-a-days, people in most nations depend extremely heavily on fossil fuels – to work, travel, regulate temperature of homes, produce food, clothing, and furniture, as well as other power industries. Not only are these fossil fuels dominating our society and creating economic vulnerability, but they also produce waste that causes a number of social and environmental concerns. The waste from these fuels leads to acid rain, smog, and climate change. It also releases sulfur dioxide as well as other air pollutants that are very harmful to the human respiratory system (Morris, 1999, p. ix). There are other alternative sustainable energy sources including solar, hydroelectric, wind, and biomass. However, the main source aside from fossil fuel is nuclear energy from controlled nuclear reactions (where nuclei of radioisotopes become stable or nonradioactive by undergoing changes) in a nuclear power plant. Nuclear power produces enormous amounts of energy to serve a community. Unfortunately, nuclear energy has its own set of problems – a big one being its waste. The spent fuel from nuclear plants is radioactive. This means that it emits radiation, or penetrating rays and particles emitted by a radioactive source. Ionizing radiation is known to cause cancer, and therefore makes anyone who lives near spent nuclear waste facilities vulnerable to this incurable disease. The disposal of nuclear waste is a global issue...
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.
So you have seen why I hate nuclear energy. The effects of it can be unimaginable if something goes wrong. I do not like nuclear energy since accidents are terrible, the environmental impact is not good, and the cost makes the government’s wallets bleed. So if you ever see energy sources and think it is amazing, ask yourself. “Is it worth the
Nuclear power has always been a controversial issue because of its inherent danger and the amount of waste that the plants produce. Once considered a relatively safe form for generating energy, nuclear power has caused more problems than it has solved. While it has reduced the amount of traditional natural resources (fossil fuels), used to generate power like coal, wood, and oil, nuclear generating plants have become anachronisms. Maintaining them and keeping them safe has become a problem of immense proportion. As the plants age and other technology becomes available, what to do with these “eyesores” is a consuming issue for many government agencies and environmental groups. No one knows what to do about the problem and in many areas of the world, another nuclear meltdown is an accident waiting to happen. Despite a vast array of safety measures, a break in reactor pipe or a leak in a containment vessel, could spell another environmental disaster for the world.
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...
One efficient way to acquire energy is Hydropower. Hydropower is power derived from the energy of falling water or fast running water. This energy converter is harmless to the environment. Other ways will affect the atmosphere and the environment in a negative way. The most common device for hydropower is a dam. It relies on the water cycle. This is one of the oldest sources of energy.
Compare and Contrast Nuclear Energy and Alternative Energy. Standard Number Science 3.4. Today, our society is using more energy than ever. With the increase in demand for energy, problems are presented that have to be addressed.
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 energy produced from nuclear reactions is very dense, providing almost ten million times more energy per atom than fossil fuels.2 In addition, nuclear plants are cost competitive, being no more expensive than alternative sources. Although there are huge initial start up costs, the only other expenses are the costs to process nuclear fuel, safely remove and store radioactive waste and daily upkeep of the plant.2
Fuels like coal, and oil that once were a fine innovation in creating energy are now rapidly deleting and one day will be gone forever; energy that won’t last is often referred to as non-renewable energy. Besides being set up to fail and become inefficient in the future, fossil fuel energy is not clean to use and poses several environmental complications. Coal, for instance is “the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. Coal combustion not only produces sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides that contribute to acid rain and snow, it generates millions of tons of particulates that cause asthma and other respiratory diseases.” As with all usage of fossil fuels, it creates enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, which contributes to greenhouse gas. Not only are fossil fuels dirty, they also pose as a security risk and unforgiving on the American wallet. (Saini)
There are two types of resources using to produce electricity, non-renewable energy resources and renewable energy resources. Non-renewable energy resources or known by fossil fuel such as wood, oil, gas and coal can be defined as solid, liquid or gaseous fuels formed in the ground after millions of years by chemical and physical changes in plants and animal residues under high temperature and pressure.