Uranium, as a most significant material in producing nuclear power, has becoming a world renowned energy resource. An article from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (2006) points out that, Australia is one of the largest uranium distribution countries in this world and is also one of the countries that can exploit the uranium. So the uranium mining has made a huge influence for Australian and its people. Some people argument that uranium mining can bring enormous economic resources for Australia, for that reason, the government should encourage the exploitation of uranium. However, I firmly believe that the limitations on mining of uranium are very essential. Firstly, uranium mining would cause pollution for the drinking water. Secondly, the miner’s health is harmful impacted while they working to mining the uranium ore. Lastly, if people mine uranium without control, the uranium tends to decrease to a smaller amount and exhausted in the last.
Those people who against to restrict the uranium mining claim that Australia economy can obtain many economic benefits from international u...
Australia’s resources otherwise known as factors of production – natural resources, labour, capital and enterprise, are relatively scarce, resulting in the economic problem of relative scarcity as we cannot satisfy all our needs and wants in Australia as they are unlimited. Collective and individual wants are
... Australia's workforce, infrastructure, schools, hospitals & healthcare, helping families and low income earners, and investment into regional areas.
In terms of the supporting by Tim, Denise Boyd (2006), who is a campaign director at Australian Conservation Foundation, refutes that his argument will not deliver the cut we need in greenhouse pollution to avoid urgent climate change; in addition, it will cause only big risk compared with leading tiny reward. However, in 2007, Tim rejected a former opinion of nuclear power, reversing his position that nuclear energy could play a vital role in the environment because Australia has a fabulous renewable energy like solar and wind (Frew 2007). Tim still poses a question why Australia sells not uranium, but coal to other countries (Sara 2009). He supports that since Australia has the largest amount of uranium reserves of the world, we have to supply its to countries that do not have access to renewable energy source like Australia does. Professor Robert Manne says that Tim has also aggravated many environmentalists by advocating the use of nuclear energy for some countries (La Torbe University 2015). Currently,
...nce World War II to the present day, the technology of nuclear power has increased significantly in terms of energy output and safety. The energy efficiency of nuclear power is far superior to its counterpart fossil fuel and renewable energy. Compared to fossil fuels, tiny amounts of fuel used by nuclear reactors is equivalent to a large sum of coal. This is a no brainer. Why mine a ton of coal when a little uranium can be used to gain the same amount of energy? Not only is it efficient, it’s safe to use. Used fuel is packed away in storage safely, so there isn’t any chance of radiation leaking out. In the present day, nuclear power incidents haven’t been occurring lately. Advancements in technology and equipment used have made nuclear energy a very reliable and safe source of energy. With today’s energy needs, nuclear power has the ability to keep up in the race.
One of the main factors that caused globalisation in Australia was a reduction in protection, the act of National trade barriers being removed. A reduction in protection of international trade is done by governments who work together to develop agreements with each other to reduce trade barriers and allow tariffs on imported goods to be reduced. Australian governments have been involved with countries such as Singapore and Malaysia in an effort to help reduce the tariffs and quotas on imported goods, resulting in free trade agreements between other countries. For example, when National trade barriers are removed, opportunities are opened up to Australian business to import goods at a cheaper price and then export other goods to new markets in other countries. Evidence of this was recently reported on the ABC news program, the reporter quoted that ‘our government should not sign any free trade agreements with Japan, until the tariffs on Australian beef and dairy products are reduced.’ This news report showed local Australian farmers who are trying to convince our Prime Minist...
Australia has had one of the most outstanding economies of the world in recent years - competitive, open and vibrant. The nation’s high economic performance stems from effective economic management and ongoing structural reform. Australia has a competitive and dynamic private sector and a skilled, flexible workforce. It also has a comprehensive economic policy framework in place. The economy is globally competitive and remains an attractive destination for investment. Australia has a sound, stable and modern institutional structure that provides certainty to businesses. For long time, Australia is a stable democratic country with strong growth, low inflation and low interest rate.(Ning)
In economics, particularly microeconomics, demand and supply are defined as, “an economic model of price determination in a market” (Ronald 2010). The price of petrol in Australia is rising, but the demand remains the same, due to the fact that fuel is a necessity. As price rises to higher levels, demand would continue to increase, even if the supply may fall. Singapore is identified as a primary supplier ...
INTRODUCTION:BHP Billiton is one of the top and leading companies who mainly deal in global resources. It is one of the major producer of main commodities like iron-ore, oil, gas (both conventional & unconventional), copper, energy coal, aluminium, silver and nickel. Developing values for the shareholders for long-term is their purpose which can be achieved by developing, creating new innovative methods of methods of marketing of natural resources.It has above 100 operations running in 25 nations across the world shows its global presence and it has headquarters in Melbourne, Australia (Thompson & Macklin, 2010).
What comes to mind when you think of coal mining? If you're like me, coal mining means living in darkness and a cold hearted industry. Other words that come to mind are poverty and oppression. Coal mining is not a job that you dream about or get a degree for. People who are coal miners do not chose a life full of danger and repression, they get stuck with it. There are many dangers that come along with coal mining, not only for the workers, but for the environment. Coal mining and the coal industry have caused irreversible damage to our environment and has killed innocent miners.
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...
Though it has had many negative impacts on the environment in the past, mining is a vital industry completely necessary to our economy and lives. Nearly every item we use or encounter in our day to day lives is mined or contains mined products. Without the excavation of such materials things like computers, televisions, large building structures, electricity, and cars would not be possible. Virtually every technological and medical advance uses minded materials, without which millions would suffer. Some examples of minerals in the home include the telephone which is made from as many as 42 different minerals, including aluminum, beryllium, coal, copper, gold, iron, silver, and talc. A television requires over 35 different minerals, and more than 30 minerals are needed to make a single personal computer. Without boron, copper, gold and quartz, your digital alarm clock would not work. Every American uses an average 47,000 pounds of newly mined materials each year, which is higher than all other countries with the exception of Japan, which is a staggering figure representative of our dependence and need for mined minerals. Coal makes up more than half of nation’s electricity, and will continue to be the largest electrical supplier into 2020 & accounting for some 95 percent of the nation's fossil energy reserves – nine of every ten short-tons of coal mined in the United States is used for electricity generation. As the population of the world grows more mineral resources must be exploited through mining in order to support the rising demand for such products. Though it may present a hazard to the environment and those physically located nears the mines, the materials extracted from mines...
Uranium was discovered by Martin Heinrich Klaproth, a German chemist, in the mineral pitchblende (primarily a mix of uranium oxides) in 1789.Klaproth, as well as the rest of the scientific community, believed that the substance he extracted from pitchblende was pure uranium, it was actually uranium dioxide (UO2). After noticing that 'pure' uranium reacted oddly with uranium tetrachloride (UCl4), Radioactivity was first discovered in 1896 when Antoine Henri Becquerel, a French physicist, detected it from a sample of uranium. Today, uranium is obtained from uranium ores such as pitchblende, uraninite , carnotite and autunite as well as from phosphate rock , lignite (brown coal) and monazite sand . Since there is little demand for uranium metal, uranium is usually sold in the form of sodium diuranate , also known as yellow cake, or triuranium octoxide).
The energy industry is beginning to change. In today’s modern world, governments across the globe are shifting their focuses from traditional sources of power, like the burning coal and oil, to the more complex and scientific nuclear power supply. This relatively new system uses powerful fuel sources and produces little to no emissions while outputting enough energy to fulfill the world’s power needs (Community Science, n.d.). But while nuclear power seems to be a perfect energy source, no power production system is without faults, and nuclear reactors are no exception, with their flaws manifesting in the form of safety. Nuclear reactors employ complex systems involving pressure and heat. If any of these systems dysfunctions, the reactor can leak or even explode releasing tons of highly radioactive elements into the environment. Anyone who works at or near a nuclear reactor is constantly in danger of being exposed to a nuclear incident similar to the ones that occurred at the Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi plants. These major accidents along with the unresolved problems with the design and function of nuclear reactors, as well as the economic and health issues that nuclear reactors present serve to show that nuclear energy sources are not worth the service that they provide and are too dangerous to routinely use.
In our days, mining for resources is inevitable. The resources we need are valuable in everyday life. Such resources mined up are coal, copper, gold, silver, and sand. However, mining poses environmental risks that can degrade the quality of soil and water, which can end up effecting us humans if not taken care of and many of the damages are irreversible once they have occurred.
As one of the greatest alternatives to fossil fuels, an important advantage of nuclear energy is the significantly lower emission rate of CO2 in comparison to plants which use coal and natural gas.2 Nuclear power is not reliant on fossil fuels and therefore producing energy by this method reduces pollution and the contribution to climate change. However, whilst the actual process of generating energy releases few emissions, uranium must be mined and purified and in the past this has not always been an environmentally clean process.2 Ultimately, uranium will one day run out, but nuclear reactors are versatile and may also run on Thorium. Despite being finite, this would allow nuclear power stations to function for a longer period of time.