Peaceful Uses for Nuclear Technology

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DISEC Angola Topic 1: Peaceful Uses for Nuclear Technology I. Introduction Nuclear technology can be useful for things such as food preservation, insect control, agriculture, medicine, water resources, and in industries as well. However, with such tremendous benefits, come large drawbacks. There have been three large accidents in the history of nuclear energy: Three Mile Island in 1979, in which the fuel dripped to the base of the nuclear reactor and the reactor was damaged but radiation was not a health issue; Chernobyl in 1986, where the reactor was not designed with a fail-safe technology of water, but was used with graphite which contains a “positive void coefficient”, the problem with this mechanism was that once temperatures increased the graphite could catch fire. Once this graphite caught fire it send radioactive debris high into the atmosphere which was distributed by the winds. To this day Chernobyl is an abandoned reminder of the failed structure of this reactor and still contains radioactivity. The only thing that remains here are they slowly decaying structures. The possibility of terrorist attacks on nuclear reactors are things that causes concern for nations as well. To address these concerns, the possibility of a terrorist group intending on crashing an airplane into a nuclear reactor to try and produce radiation spread is fairly little for the reason being that if a plane were to hypothetically speaking crash into one of these nuclear reactors, it would cause little to no damage because of the structure they are made of that are built to withstand such impacts. Nuclear proliferation is the biggest controversy relating to the peaceful uses of nuclear technology. When using nuclear energy, once you finish us... ... middle of paper ... ...sociation. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. "Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission." English Name of the Content Author / Nom En Anglais De L'auteur Du Contenu. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. "Cooling Power Plants." Cooling Power Plants. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. "Fukushima Angola Statement." Pub.iaea. N.p., n.d. Web. 2013. "GENERAL ASSEMBLY URGES GLOBAL COOPERATION IN PEACEFUL USES OF NUCLEARENERGY, FOLLOWING DISCUSSION OF IAEA REPORT." UN News Center. UN, 11 Jan. 2004. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. "The Many Uses of Nuclear Technology." The Many Uses of Nuclear Technology. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. "Preventing Nuclear Meltdown: Assessing Regulatory Failure in Japan and the United States." The Brookings Institution. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. "Safety of Nuclear Power Reactors." Safety of Nuclear Reactors. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013.

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