The Pros And Cons Of Nuclear Power Plants

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Nuclear power plants are known as good sources of energy but they have their cons. Nuclear power plants are used around the world as a source of energy. These power plants work by using a process called fission. Fission is the process of splitting an atom of uranium like in the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This process only produces steam which is harmless to the environment. The one problem is that they create nuclear waste. Nuclear waste is still radioactive and hard to dispose it. Another problem is that the uranium used in them is nonrenewable. This means that once there is no more, there will be no more nuclear energy. Also an accident caused by these power plants release waves of radiation that are very harmful to …show more content…

Nuclear power plants produce nuclear waste or fission product which is still radioactive after splitting the original atom. “The large majority of the energy is released instantaneously but the rest of it comes out from the fission products over the years. That slowly released energy is what makes nuclear waste a hazard.” (Touran). That hazard can affect both humans and the environment which the waste is placed in. Nuclear waste is also hard to get rid of. The methods used take a long time to dispose the waste, especially high level waste. “High level waste decays into intermediate level waste over many thousands of years.” (Nuclear Power). Intermediate level is a high level of radiation which is hard to contain. Nuclear waste is a danger to the workers in these factories due to the health problems they could have. Also many other people can be affected by the radiation that are taking in. “Nuclear Power Plants cause between 600-1000 deaths a year per million people” (Nuclear Power Plant Accidents). These death of innocent people are just because of the usage of radiation. Nuclear waste is stored safely in containers in a pool just for the containers to reduce radiation (Nuclear Power). Although they are stored there radiation can still come out and the water used is now polluted. Today we are running the risk of having no more water. This is just using up more water were it can be used in a everyday life. Nuclear power plants should stop being used because all of the waste it produces and also because accidents can be

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