Nuclear Power
For the last 60 years or so nuclear power has become a fairly important part of the energy industry. Nuclear energy makes up 13.5% of all of the electricity made in the entire world and there are many different viewpoints on it. There have been many nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986 or Fukushima, Japan just last year! This shows that nuclear energy is still a global issue today. I will outline some of the so called “good” areas of nuclear energy but I will still point out the problems and the opposing views on this global issue. I do believe that nuclear energy can be a good way to create energy but there are many issues that are associated with nuclear power.
On June 27, 1954 the Obninsk Nuclear Plant in Russia was completed and put into service. This was a brand new way to create energy that seemed to be more environmentally friendly than the regular fossil fuel plants. There are over 320 plants working today and many are still being built. Canada has only 18 compared to the United States which has over 100. There are many in Russia, France, and Japan, and even Pakistan has 2! The US, France and Japan alone supply 50% of all the nuclear generated electricity in the world. Over 150 Naval vessels on the planet are powered by nuclear energy such as aircraft carriers and submarines.
Some pros on nuclear power are that there are very low CO2 emissions (which are something that people look out for nowadays), their operating costs are relatively low, and the large amounts of output energy supplies large industrial and city needs. Although nuclear energy may seem more environmentally friendly, there are still many problems with nuclear power.
The construction costs of these plants are very high. Their waste can last 200-500 thousand years and the radiation from this waste can cause illness among people and animals. Possibly the most frightening of all of these opposing views on nuclear power is that there are many unknown risks regarding nuclear power. There are still many things that we do not know about nuclear power and there may be some harmful parts of it that we have still not discovered. One final problem with nuclear power is that there are many known risks to nuclear power, if there is an accident.
There have been 24 nuclear accidents since the first nuclear plant was built and with these accidents there have been over 4000 deaths, mainly caused by the radiation that is given off by the waste. Possibly the most famous of these accidents is the nuclear plant in Chernobyl. This accident left thousands dead. 90% of these deaths were caused by the radiation given off by the waste. The area around Chernobyl will not habitable for another 50,000 years. In 2011 a Tsunami began a meltdown in a Japanese power plant and killed one person. This may not seem like an absolutely terrible accident however it affects thousands of people and their lives. This really shows the impact that nuclear power has on our lives.
Although there are many opposing views to this topic I believe that nuclear power is a very efficient and a relatively better way to produce energy compared to methods such as burning fossil fuels. Although the consequences of a nuclear accident can be catastrophic, if these plants are run properly and safely there will be fewer accidents. Environmentalists such as Al Gore believe that nuclear power is not as bad as burning fossil fuels, but it is still not the solution to the problem of global warming. I am not an environmentalist so I am not as worried about what happens to the planet. I am more worried about how the people will be affected by this issue but we have to remember, without the environment there will be nowhere for us to live .
Although nuclear power is a very efficient, fairly environmentally friendly and the costs are relatively low, we have to remember that nuclear power is still a dangerous way of creating power and we should not take it lightly. The disasters in Chernobyl and Japan really show us the dangers of these plants and what they can do too many people. It may be more environmentally friendly but the dangers of it are just as high as the predominantly used fossil fuel methods. This method of energy creation has changed the lives of thousands of people in the world and it seems to be one of the most popular methods nowadays. In the community that I live in nuclear energy is not really used but one day it may be have to be considered to create energy because we will not always have these fossil fuels to burn. In conclusion I believe that nuclear power will become one of the most popular energy creation methods and it may be around for a very long time. Hopefully in that time the human race will be able to improve this method significantly so future generations will have a clean and happy planet to live on.
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Sweet video, how did you get it to actually show the pictures in those ways? And the text too?
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