Nuclear Energy Advantages And Disadvantages

In our world, many different forms of energy are used to create electricity in order to power a wide variety of things including our homes, cars, and even our handheld devices. One form in particular that interested me is nuclear energy. This form of energy is produced in nuclear power plants and is seen as a cleaner source of energy as it does not produce carbon dioxide or any pollutants that may harm our atmosphere. In a nuclear station, electricity is generated with the usage of heat to create steam and drive turbine generators. However, this energy is not considered a renewable resource since it does produce nuclear waste after all and can be deadly if a power plant was somehow unable to constantly be stabilized and resulted in some sort

One downside to nuclear energy is that even though it does not produce any greenhouse gases, we would eventually run out of uranium, which is why it is not considered a renewable resource1. Another downside is that the use of nuclear facilities and energy do produce radiation. The radiation, however, is released in very tiny levels that are regulated in order to keep people and their lives safe. The power plants produce radioactive liquid waste and gases during use, but the plants have tanks that are used to store those gases and liquids until their radioactive levels have dropped and are safe to be treated and release in a safe fashion1. However, if in the event of a disaster, in which the radiation is somehow release in a larger amount, the effects of nearby life would be devastating. This can kill people in a matter of days due to radiation poisoning and if not death, it can have a great effect on those who were exposed to unsafe levels of the radioactive wastes and its radiation. Perhaps the greatest disadvantage of these clean nuclear plants is the cost1. Not only do they cost a lot to make, but to decommission them is very costly. It cost about seven billion euros in order to shut them down safely. To mine Uranium is expensive as well. As a result, Uranium is only mined in a few countries in the world which include Canada, Australia, and Kasakhstan3.

For the most part, the fuel consists of U-238 but U-235 fissions easily. U-235 atoms are unstable and as the nuclei break up, they release neutrons and when these neutrons hit other Uranium atoms, they split as well which releases their own neutrons as well as heat which is used to create steam. So really, one fission causes the rest to happen, like a domino effect, making fission self-sustaining.

Conclusion After conducting research on nuclear energy, I learned that even nuclear power is a very costly way of obtaining electricity, it may be the future of energy since the need to reduce pollution in our atmosphere increases by the second. In the future, we may see in large increase in the use of nuclear energy to power our cities and countries. We will someday find a way to collect nuclear energy through a less expensive process which will allow us to possible completely switch to nuclear power. The possibilities are endless with how nuclear energy can be