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It is widely believed that nuclear energy continues to grow only because of the industrial lobby from companies and corporations that manufacture equipment for nuclear plants and organizations, as well as government officials, who are associated with the nuclear industry. The first advantage is that using nuclear energy can reduce fossil fuel consumption. But the biggest problem is that despite the safety systems of nuclear power plants the human aspect has always an impact on a nuclear accident and nobody can guarantee that disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima will not happen again. Nuclear waste is a problem because it takes many years to deal with its radioactivity and risks. The important disadvantage is that the nuclear power was first used in the military industry to create nuclear bombs and similar situation can repeat in future. (Advantages and disadvantages of nuclear power) Using nuclear energy provides impact on the environment in the country. The emissions of radioactive waste cause environmental pollution, health problems, many animals, and plants mutate or die and condition water and atmosphere worsens. The question is whether the world should keeping using nuclear power and I am going to prove that the world should not keep using nuclear power due to some objective factors.
Everything comes from the idea that there are nearly 440 commercial nuclear power reactors in 31 countries, with over 380,000 MWe of total capacity that provide over 11% of the world's electricity as continuous, reliable base-load power, without carbon dioxide emissions. The nuclear technology uses the energy that was released by splitting the atoms of certain elements. At first, this technology was focused on producing bombs. Nowadays nuclear power satisfies nearly 11.5% of global electricity needs and more than 31 countries depend on this power. U.S. nuclear power plant performance constantly improves and its load factor is increased that makes the U.S. as the performance leader in this sphere. (Nuclear Power in the World Today) Thus, our country has benefits from using nuclear power and its will unlikely refuse its interests in this sphere.
The main advantage of nuclear power is the high energy of fuel that is nearly 104 times larger than the power of hydrocarbons. This fact significantly reduces the cost of transporting fuel to power plants or electricity to consumers. From the other point of view, nowadays it is the most environmentally friendly way to generate electricity. Nuclear power plants pollute the environment mainly because of heat emissions. There is no need to note about Chernobyl and Fukushima tragedies. These tragedies are largely echoes of the past deeds because the constructions of the reactors at both stations were too old. The landfill is a problem, but if the fuel is measured in kilograms, there will also be a little bit of waste. From the other point of view, uranium-235 doesn’t have future perspectives. It is obvious that the fast reactors will dominate the development of nuclear power and then there is a problem because it is necessary to separate isotopes of substances to obtain weapons-grade uranium-235 even from nuclear fuel is difficult. At the same time, it is relatively simple to obtain weapons-grade plutonium-239, because it is possible to use different chemical properties of plutonium and uranium. This means that the construction of modern nuclear power plants is significantly complicated in many countries. The problem is that a nuclear power has no alternative because none of the alternative energy sources are able to provide a reliable, scalable and predictable flow of energy. It should be noted that the question is not about the price or harm to the environment, but only the fact that no major power system can act without the reliable and independent component. (Nuclear Power Is Too Safe to Save the World From Climate Change) Thus, it appears that this source of energy is the best because it has no reliable alternatives.
Talking about global international disasters such as Three Mile Island, Fukushima, or Chernobyl, it should be noted that it is believed that such disasters were the results of the inability of the reactor to cool the fuel that will not be repeated in future. Modern updates mean that nuclear accidents are rare and the rate of problems with the reactor has dropped to nearly 0.1 per year. In other words, radiation involves environmental danger, but the technology minimizes the possible risk. Talking about the real risk, according to the World Health Organization, the possible disaster will claim 4,000 lives that include victims and people born with genetic mutations, while the disaster that happened as the result of coal power plants kills about 7,500 people in the U.S. per year that confirms that nuclear energy doesn’t pose really great risk. (Nuclear Power Is Too Safe to Save the World From Climate Change) The number of victims and negative results do not overweight those that happen as the results of other disasters that proves that nuclear accidents are rare and minimized and will not cause great victims as it is widely believed.
The main reason is that nuclear industry is safe because each plant consumes billions of dollars in permitting, inspections, materials, and specialized construction decades before producing. These costs and the best specialists make their best to keep nuclear industry safe. (Nuclear Power Is Too Safe to Save the World From Climate Change) In other words, only the use of nuclear energy provides the opportunity to get this amount of energy that will meet the needs of humanity nowadays. There are no truly viable arguments against nuclear energy because no other sources of receipt can cope with this task and nuclear energy seems to be a panacea that solves the problems of people. Despite a lot of disputes, objective data confirms that the world should not refuse keeping using nuclear power.
Thus, the development of nuclear energy can play an important role in strategies to reduce global climate change. The plants do not allow CO2 emissions that are the main causes of the greenhouse effect. World nuclear power currently provides energy to nearly 1 billion people and if this energy would be produced using fossil fuels, the result would be the formation of additional 2 billion tons of CO2 per year that is 10% more than the current level, while the Kyoto Protocol requires reducing emissions by 10%. Since CO2 emissions are central components of debate about energy stability and the use of safe nuclear energy, along with the use of renewable energy sources is considered to be a promising model of national power in some countries. This fact proves that the world should still use nuclear power because it is not dangerous and doesn’t case the greenhouse effect.
Different countries have different attitudes towards the development of nuclear energy. For example, Sweden plans to refuse existing reactors, Austria, Belgium and some other countries abandoned the planned construction of power plants, such countries as Russia, Ukraine, France plan to construct new nuclear reactors and increase attention to the safe operation of nuclear measures. There is strong opposition to the development of nuclear energy in Germany and Italy. In other words, countries have different attitudes towards the issue that depends on their internal policy.
Thus, the biggest concern about the nuclear power is the possibility of improper use and, as a consequence, the repetition of the tragedy of Chernobyl. On the other hand, if the correct operation provides no adverse effects, the energy from this station would be more environmentally friendly than the station that uses a coal or oil. The big fear among experts causes problems with the disposal of nuclear waste. In addition, it is believed that there is no qualified personnel able to ensure safe operation of nuclear power plants that doesn’t respond the reality because a lot of money spent and many specialists work to reduce and minimize all possible negative impacts of nuclear power.
Finally, using nuclear power has positive and negative sides that cannot be compared with each other. The negative side includes a threat to lives of all living things on the planet and a positive argument includes the fact that nuclear power provides the necessary energy for human activity. However, people do not make a choice because reserves of natural energy resources come to the end while the needs of mankind are growing at the moment. Unfortunately, alternative sources such as solar energy, hydrogen, and others are not able to ensure needed amount of energy. After all, there is only one way to protect the world from the threat that is a properly use of nuclear energy, attention to the work of nuclear power plants and other installations. The study proves that the world should keep using nuclear power.
Works Cited
Advantages and disadvantages of nuclear power. Nuclear energy. (2016). Web. 12 May 2016.
"Nuclear Power in the World Today. Nuclear Engineering International". (2016). Web. 12 May
2016.
"Nuclear Power Is Too Safe to Save the World From Climate Change". Wired. (2016). Web. 12
May 2016.
