Nuclear Waste Essay

Nuclear Waste
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...

... middle of paper ...

...sh community, decreased biomass, and an altered balance between producers and consumers (para. 1). According to Lapp (1971), temperature changes in the water from the thermal pollution (taking cool water from bodies of water and replacing it with warm water following the cooling process in nuclear plants) can change the activities of species, for example the Bluefin crab, which could have detrimental effects on the whole ecosystem. However, an advantage of nuclear power to the environment is that nuclear waste is carefully disposed of and designed to stay away from the air humans breathe, the water humans drink, and the food humans eat (Morris, 1999, p. 36). On the other hand, this is not true for fossil fuels which pollute the air and water. Unlike fossil fuels, nuclear waste does not produce harmful air pollutants such as ash, sulfur dioxide, and greenhouse gases.