Nuclear Energy Persuasive Speech

Nuclear energy must NOT be used in South Australia.

Nuclear reactions are used to produce heat energy to boil water to produce steam, then steam is used to turn a turbine which turns a generator that produces electricity. The core of the nuclear reactor is fuelled by 1kg Uranium, a highly radioactive element. One kilogram of Uranium is relevant to 1,000,000 kilograms of coal. A huge save.

However, I don’t believe nuclear energy is the answer to powering the lights throughout the nation. Although coal is an irreplaceable substance, I believe Uranium won’t last either. Uranium might last another thirty years, but the damage it has done to the environment is beyond repair.

Firstly, radiation contributes to global warming and cancer in human bodies. Nuclear powering medically dangerous, it sends off radioisotopes such as Iodine 131, Strontium

90 and Caesium 137 which are all deadly radioisotopes.

Radioisotopes send off deadly rays such as Gamma rays. They have high penetrability and can go through a few centimetres of concrete and lead. It can penetrate human tissues easily. Gamma rays was exposed to people in Balaclava, South Australia in the 1950s during the atomic bomb testings held by the English government. People that were effected included, men, women, children and seniors.

Nuclear power may sound like a new scientific discovery but it has been around since last century. It is not a renewable source nor is it green or clean. The Australian Nuclear Science snd Technology Organisation (ANSTO), is trying to convince people that nuclear power is the ‘way to go’ because they have vested interests in it but I can assure you that it comes with a great cost.

Let us examine the process of mining uranium. Much like coal mining, it causes destruction to the precious environment including the plants and animals that live within it. The mining machines uses fossil fuels, an irreplaceable fuel that causes pollution just like any other mining machine that uses oil, gas or coal.

The mined Uranium is radioactive. Radioactivity is colourless, odourless and tasteless so we won’t know if it’s around. It can cause genetic damage (Birth deformities) and somatic damage (cancers and tumours). Then this radioactive material needs to be transported to an enrichment plant (a purification factory where an expensive process where they enrich uranium whereby it becomes even more radioactive). Countries which could become potential war enemies can easily locate where enrichment factories are and theses sites would be targets for terrorist attack.

Transportation of such dangerously radioactive enriched uranium is also a huge problem.

The trucks needed for transportation uses fossil fuels with added danger that unlike coal, oil or gas. The enriched uranium is radioactive. Can you imagine how destructive it would to have a road accident involving one of these trucks? Unlike oil or coal spill, radioactivity can be carried by wind and rain (Storm water drains).

Now let us examine the Nuclear Reactor. Nuclear reactors are neither cheap nor quick to build and there are a number of different designs to choose from meaning there will be more debate and discussion between the experts and industries. This means there will be more taxes you and I will have to pay.

Yes, of course accidents are unavoidable with nuclear reactors, a meltdown (also known as exposing the core of the nuclear reactor) being the worst possibility. There has been a few of these accidents documented such as the Three Mile Island in the USA, Chernobyl in Ukraine and the Fukushima Plant Japan and each time it’s been said that is would never happen again. This is proof that even scientists are not

infallible!

Lastly, let us look into the disposal from the nuclear reaction. It is pretty much the same as the waste products from the atomic bomb itself. There are radioactive and will stay radioactive for many more years to come.

The waste products need to be sealed in airtight containers, transported by trucks (again the transportation accident and radioactive pollution risk) to a barren, uninhabited location such as the far north of our state and buried deep underground. Problem solved you would think correct? But in reality, deep underground in the far north of our state is the location of the Great Artesian Basin.

The Great Artesian Basin is the only source of fresh water for most of the inland Australia. Although the geologists claim that the area has a negligible chance of earth movements and the buried radioactive waste would not break/break, but could you imagine the catastrophic result if there was earth movement and the waste did rupture?

There are risks, risks of radioactive pollution at the mining site, at then enrichment factory, at the nuclear reactor, at the nuclear dump site and during the transport to and from any of these sites. Then there is the possibility of a nuclear meltdown like the ones documented in the past, the accidents they claimed will not occur again. There’s also the possibility of the types of accidents that haven't happened before but could - like the contamination of the Great Artesian Basin.

There are a few alternatives for us in South Australia, like solar energy (since we have more sunlight than most countries and particularly the countries which rely on nuclear) or wind energy (windmills) to generate electricity. Let’s make use of them.

Clearly now that you’ve been presented with scientific facts, nuclear energy is not the ‘way to go’. So don’t be fooled, duped or conned by ANSTO and mining companies who stand to profit from a nuclear industry. The environment and the safety of the next generation is much more important.

Jiamai 806