Argument Against Nuclear Power

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Every Friday in Japan, the lawn of the office of the Prime Minister fills up with hundreds of Japanese citizens to protest in concern about the country’s ongoing nuclear program in spite of the meltdown of the Fukushima-Daichi power plant. 170 miles north of Tokyo, the meltdown happened in 2011 after a back to back earthquake and tsunami devastated cooling capabilities within the plant, which subsequently led to the meltdown of one of the reactors. This even displaced tens of thousands of people from their homes. (Junko, and Mullen Jethro) Although no deaths have been attributed to the explosion or subsequent nuclear fallout yet, the full repercussions of the event have yet to been fully experienced. A plan is still being developed of how to remedy the situation as nuclear contaminated water continues to seep into the Pacific Ocean. The Fukushima disaster is certainly the worst nuclear event since Chernobyl in 1986 and perhaps will escalate to be worst environmental disaster in our lifetime.

The study of atoms began with the Greek philosophers who devised the concept that matter is comprised of invisible atoms. Centuries later, the implications of this theory were explored by many famous scientists to include Albert Einstein and his theory of relativity. Einsteins counterpart in theoretical physics, Ernest Rutherford, theorized, “If it is possible to control at will, the rate of disintegration of the radio elements, an enormous amount of energy could be obtained from a small amount of matter.” (“History of Nuclear Energy”) The next 40 years were spent trying to do just that, and in 1942, Enrico Fermi and a team of notorious physicists created the first sustainable nuclear reaction. Since that time, the history of nuclear energy ...

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