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Positive effect of nuclear energy
The importance of nuclear energy
Positive effect of nuclear energy
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Joseph Contreras Panther ID: 4954086 EGN 1033 Is Nuclear Energy Safe? Many questions are asked regarding nuclear energy. How is it used? What can it be used for? What are the different ways it can be used? One of the most important questions asked is the safety. Is nuclear energy safe? The simple answer is yes. Generating electricity from nuclear power and radioactive materials is efficient, reliable and most importantly secure. The 1950s was a crucial moment. People wanted to figure out what would be most successful way to grasp the power of an atom. A popular interest also arisen with the idea of applying heat for electricity. Even though this did cause speculations of safety issues and accidental damage, all factors were put into consideration …show more content…
The accident was caused by a cooling malfunction. Radioactive gas was released. The radioactive gas released did not do any harm. There was no reported injuries or effects of the explosion reported. Another major accident was in 1986 in Chernobyl. The reasoning for this explosion was a bad reactor. The reactor killed 30 operators and firemen. It was the first nuclear reactor accident to cause any fatalities. Last nuclear accident was caused on March 11, 2011 from an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0. There were great amount of radiation released. Luckily there haven’t been any deaths or accidents because of the nuclear accident. In all the years of using nuclear energy there have been only 3 accidents throughout 32 different countries, which is extremely …show more content…
They deal with a huge amount of safety regulation across the world for nuclear plants. From the previous Fukushima accident, the organization has follow-up-visits to plants. The organization also overviews the operation and include upgrades to the plants designs. The IAEA Conventions on Nuclear Safety (CNS) was established to legally maintain a safety standard by setting international standards. Nuclear plants are usually around bodies of water to help with cooling. Even though this can help it can be a downfall when rain floods the power plants. Some power plants have been flooded due to flooding and have needed to be shut down for safety. Most plants are designed to operate for 30-40 years. A lot of the plants wears out and corrode throughout the years. Most of the material needs to be replaced in 30 years to ensure safety. The reactor on the other hand is expect to have a life of 60 years. Some other questions wandering if the material would be obsolete and if it should be fixed or replaced. As time passes and technology improves its always a question to improve the plant to ensure its safety by upgrading the components. Sometimes there will be thorough before extending the licenses of the material. Equipment is regularly being monitored for defective material. The overall concern in power plants is
On March 28, 1979, at 4:00 A.M. Eastern time, the worst accident in commercial nuclear power history happened. It was a nice day in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, and then it all happened. This accident was rated a 5 on a scale that only goes to 7. The scale is called International Nuclear Event Scale. It all started inside the secondary-system where the pilot-operated relief valve was stuck open releasing large amounts of nuclear reactor coolant. This horrific accident caused many scientists to worry about nuclear energy, as well as concerning scientists that it could be a danger to the world, so this caused many safety concerns among activists and the general public which resulted in in new regulations for the nuclear industry, and has been cited as a contributor to the decline of a new reactor construction program that was already underway in the 1970s. Even though this sounds like it should have caused many people to develop cancerous cells, epidemiological studies analyzing the rate of cancer in and around the area since the accident, determined there was a small statistically non-significant increase in the rate and thus no causal connection linking the accident with these cancers has been substantiated. After
On April 26th, 1986, operators at the Chernobyl Power Plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, ran what they thought to be a routine safety test. But fate was not on the side of these operators. Without warning, reactor #4 became unstable, as it had been operating at a low power for a possible shutdown and the reactor’s design caused it to be unsafe at this level of power. Internal temperatures rose. Attempts to cool the system produced the opposite effect. Instantly, the nuclear core surged with power. At 1:23 p.m., the reactor exploded. The first blast ripped off the reactor's steel roof. The second blast released a large plume of radiation into the sky. Flames engulfed the building. For ten long days, fire fighters and power plant workers attempted to overcome the inferno. Thirty-one of them died of radiation poisoning. Chernobyl was the worst nuclear disaster in history. It unleashed radiation hundreds of times greater than the atomic bombs exploded over Japan during World War II. [1]
There are many sources of energy today, and the best source of it is constantly being sought after, one source stands out above the rest. Nuclear energy is simple in theory, yet it may be one of the most controversial sources of power. Nuclear energy works using reactors built to split the atoms (nuclear fission) of the fuel to produce heat. This heat evaporates the cooling agent (usually water) into steam which turns turbines to create electricity. Nuclear energy should be allowed, because it produces an abundance of electricity, as well as being a clean source of energy with no harmful emissions. Nuclear energy is the future of clean, environmentally friendly energy.
Nuclear power has always been a controversial issue because of its inherent danger and the amount of waste that the plants produce. Once considered a relatively safe form for generating energy, nuclear power has caused more problems than it has solved. While it has reduced the amount of traditional natural resources (fossil fuels), used to generate power like coal, wood, and oil, nuclear generating plants have become anachronisms. Maintaining them and keeping them safe has become a problem of immense proportion. As the plants age and other technology becomes available, what to do with these “eyesores” is a consuming issue for many government agencies and environmental groups. No one knows what to do about the problem and in many areas of the world, another nuclear meltdown is an accident waiting to happen. Despite a vast array of safety measures, a break in reactor pipe or a leak in a containment vessel, could spell another environmental disaster for the world.
Nuclear power has no place in having a safe, clean, sustainable future. Today, the manufacturing of nuclear power plants has become a critical topic throughout the world that many strongly believe should be stopped. Nuclear Power is not safe anywhere in the world nor is it environmentally friendly. Nuclear power plants are truly something that could cause mass destruction in the world and has the potential to wipe out a whole country with ease. Despite proponents’ that claim that nuclear power is safe, there is a history that proves otherwise and marks a number of disasters caused by nuclear power plants.
On April 26, 1986 the worlds worst nuclear disaster happened just outside the town of Pripyat. Located not too far from the capital city Kiev, Ukraine. According to History.com, More than 70,000 people have suffered from the effects of this disaster. Along with much of the land (18 square miles) around that area will not be habitable for the next 150 years, forcing as many as 150,000 citizens to re-locate permanently. At the time of the explosion, Chernobyl was the largest and the oldest nuclear power plant in the world. With four 1,000 megawatt reactors, one reactor explosion and meltdown could affect hundreds, if not thousands of people. Still, the soviet government tried to cover it up or hide this from its own people, as well as the rest of the world. The Soviet Union initially reported the death of two individuals and requested advice for fight graphite fires. Even as Sweden was starting to pick up dangerous levels of radioactivity, the Soviet Union continued to not take responsibility and warn surrounding nations. It wasn't until years later that the full story is released to the public.
After the United States developed the atomic at the end of World War II, interest in nuclear technology increased exponentially. People soon realized that nuclear technology could be used for electricity, as another alternative to fossil fuels. Today, nuclear power has its place in the world, but there is still a lot of controversy over the use of nuclear energy. Things such as the containment of radiation and few nuclear power plant accidents have given nuclear power a bad image. However, nuclear power is a reliable source of energy because it has no carbon emissions, energy is available at any time, little fuel is needed for a lot of energy, and as time goes on, it is becoming safer and safer.
The purpose of this report is to investigate the different views and opinions on the safeness and cost effectiveness of nuclear power compared to other forms of energy. This report will explain the issues and background of the debate, the importance of the issue, and the parties who are involved in this debate with their thoughts.
"The tops are leaping off the reactor lip" this was the first warning which the control room received before the destructive explosion in Chernobyl that occurred at 1:23 AM local time. Twenty three minute after the warning in the morning of 26 April 1989, the reactor exploded. The Chernobyl nuclear accident was an unexpected catastrophe that can happen in the history of producing nuclear power. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) defined a nuclear accident as an accident that includes any activities that lead to the release of radioactive material and causes significant consequences. The location of Chernobyl city is in the north of Ukraine near the Belarus border. That nuclear accident happened when in reactor number 4 in the Chernobyl nuclear power in the Soviet Union exploded. Because of that extreme explosion, the radioactive emissions dispensed into the environment and caused immediate deaths, illnesses and many health problems. World Health Association (2013) reports that during the accident, one person died immediately and another one died in the hospital due to the harmful injuries he received. Health World Organization (WHO) (2006) also reports that a few weeks after the disaster 28 people died because of the Acute Radiation Sickness(ARS). The Chernobyl nuclear accident is one of the major disasters in the history of nuclear power which had many serious effects on humans and the environment.
“Face it. Nukes are the most climate-friendly industrial-scale form of energy” (Power, Reiss, Pearlstein, 655). This statement is what I’m trying to promote through my argument. It also ties Inconvenient Truths: 10 Green Heresies by Matt Powers, Spencer Reiss, and Jonanna Pearlstein and Nuclear Power is Best Energy Source: Potchef Stroom together by bring out the main point all authors are trying to get across. Global warming has been a big concern for years now and one of the biggest causes for it, is the burning of fossil fuels to get energy. People that live in the United States of America use a huge amount of energy in their daily lives and that amount continues to grow with our population growing with it. My purpose of this piece is to persuade people to switch to nuclear power for a cleaner energy source because it’s the cleanest energy source.
Nuclear energy is a very powerful source of energy. Just a little bit is required to make large amounts of electricity, which powers 1 in 5 households in the U.S. Nuclear energy has been advanced over the years and has been relied on heavily by many countries today.
One of the most significant environmentally damaging instances in history was the Chernobyl incident. In 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in Ukraine exploded. It became one of the most significant disasters in the engineering community. There are different factors that contributed to the disaster. The personnel that were tasked with operating the plant were unqualified. The plant’s design was a complex one. The RBMK reactor was Soviet design, and the staff had not be acquainted with this particular design. As the operators performed tests on the reactor, they disabled the automatic shutdown mechanism. After the test, the attempt to shut down the reactor was unsuccessful as it was unstable. This is the immediate cause of the Chernobyl Accident. It later became the most significant nuclear disaster in the history of the
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.
Technological and accidental hazards can be occur without warning and can be both hazardous material incidents and failures at nuclear power plant. In some cases, victims that have been exposed to harmful chemicals or radiation show little to no symptoms until several years later. There are an increasing number of new substances and chemicals being manufactured which has increased the likelihood of a hazardous material spill or release. This also increases the risk to the environment and to the health and safety of a community.
Nuclear power, the use of exothermic nuclear processes to produce an enormous amount of electricity and heat for domestic, medical, military and industrial purposes i.e. “By the end of 2012 2346.3 kilowatt hours (KWh) of electricity was generated by nuclear reactors around the world” (International atomic energy agency Vienna, 2013, p.13). However, with that been said it is evident that the process of generating electricity from a nuclear reactor has numerous health and environmental safety issues.