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Nuclear power on essay
Nuclear power on essay
Post war world war 2
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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.
A major advantage of nuclear power is that it does not release any carbon emissions like fossil fuels (“Advantages and Disadvantages of Nuclear Energy”). The burning of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases, which is what causes global warming. The transition to using fewer resources like these and using more nuclear power for energy will benefit the environment greatly. Arctic environments will not suffer, and ocean levels won’t rise. Global warming can even cause an increase in tropical storms. In the city, cars already release a ton of carbon emissions into the atmosphere, so using nuclear power will show a small decrease in pollution over time. Also, the health of citizens will slightly improve, but there will still be the fumes released from cars. Even though this would only be a small decrease in pollution, every little bit helps towards the Earth.
Not only is nuclear power friendly to the environment, but it is almost always available, and many countries are starting to use it more. Renewable energy sources like solar and wind en...
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...nce World War II to the present day, the technology of nuclear power has increased significantly in terms of energy output and safety. The energy efficiency of nuclear power is far superior to its counterpart fossil fuel and renewable energy. Compared to fossil fuels, tiny amounts of fuel used by nuclear reactors is equivalent to a large sum of coal. This is a no brainer. Why mine a ton of coal when a little uranium can be used to gain the same amount of energy? Not only is it efficient, it’s safe to use. Used fuel is packed away in storage safely, so there isn’t any chance of radiation leaking out. In the present day, nuclear power incidents haven’t been occurring lately. Advancements in technology and equipment used have made nuclear energy a very reliable and safe source of energy. With today’s energy needs, nuclear power has the ability to keep up in the race.
Development of the Hydrogen Bomb In the world, there is little thing called power. Many countries want to have great power, few get it. Powers gave the Soviet Union and the U.S. the ability to dominate in wars. In the 1950’s during the Cold War these two countries had a race to see who could create the most powerful weapon the world has ever seen, the Hydrogen Bomb. Edward Teller, an atomic physicist, and Stanislaw Marcin Ulam, a mathematician, "who together developed the Teller-Ulam design in 1951" for the Hydrogen Bomb (Teller-Ulam Design).
Stalin, political bureaucrats, and even leading Soviet physicists of the time often put early pre-war and wartime Soviet nuclear research on the back burner. This was mainly due to the Soviet Union fighting for its very existence during the first years of the war. After the tide of the war had turned towards the Soviets, and intelligence from the Western powers suggested an active atomic weapon program, renewed interest by Stalin and the Soviet machine began in earnest. The Soviet Union was behind the technological curve when it implemented its atomic weapons program in earnest and suffered greatly from a lack of resources. The Soviet scientific community, by itself, could not have produced a working atomic weapon in just four short years after the successful deployment of two atomic bombs by the United States over Japan in 1945. Resources, material, research, and scientists taken or stripped from Soviet occupied areas of the defeated Nazi Reich (mostly German) and designs stolen from the American Manhattan Project used for the Soviet nuclear weapons program allowed that program to become successful.
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.
Central Idea: Nuclear energy only contributes a small amount to the world’s electricity yet it has hazards and dangers that far out-way its benefits. There are many other alternative power producing sources that can produce energy more efficiently and more safely than nuclear power plants can.
The Manhattan Project was necessary to the development of atomic and nuclear weapons in America, and it changed the face of war and weapons forever. The Manhattan Project was important to America because it developed the use of atomic weapons. This helped, but also changed for the worse, America and other countries.
The atomic bomb1 is the most destructive weapon known to mankind. A bomb of this nature is capable of obliterating anything up to four square miles and anything reaching outside that area receives very extreme damage. Albert Einstein was the man who had convinced the United States to research the Atomic Bomb.
Nuclear power has grown to be a big percentage of the world’s energy. As of January 18, 2013 in 31 countries 437 nuclear power plant units with an installed electric net capacity of about 372 GW are in operation and 68 plants with an installed capacity of 65 GW are in 15 countries under construction. As of end 2011 the total electricity production since 1951 amounts to 69,760 billion kWh. The cumulative operating experience amounted to 15, 15,080 years by end of 2012. (European Nuclear Society) The change that nuclear power has brought to the world has led to benefits in today’s energy’s usage.
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.
Our world today is growing every day every year and there will be a time where more and more energy will be needed to sustain human life. The demand for electricity and its value is increasing rapidly and will only continue to do so. The world will need greatly increased energy supply in the next 20 years, especially clean generated electricity [WNA, 2014]. Fourteen percent of the world’s electricity comes from nuclear energy to use. The use and demand for electricity will increase in 2030 by eighty one percent. Therefore, nuclear power plants need to rise to fulfill the demands and needs for the growth of the population. Since the demand for electricity is increasing and with many resources to get electricity from, the use of nuclear energy without constant support will probably decline to around 9 percent or less by 2035. At least two factors will make this quite difficult for nuclear energy to gain a bigger m...
The Manhattan project started by the United States Military in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada in order to develop a nuclear bomb to use to force the axis powers to surrender thus ending World War II. While the nuclear bombs were never dropped on Germany or anywhere in Europe, the nuclear bombs Little Boy and Big Boy were dropped in Japan to end the war in the pacific and bringing a close to the most deadly war in history, just as they were intended to do. The Manhattan Project was started on the 13th of August 1942 almost one year after the United states entered the war after the attacks on Pearl Harbor on September 7th 1942. When the Manhattan Project began the main target of the nuclear bombs was the Nazi regime in Germany.
Nearly 75 years ago, man split the atom and ushered in an entirely new future for humans. Globally, nuclear power has had a positive and negative impact on society. As the demand for electricity increased during the 20th century into the 21st century nuclear energy provided a cleaner and cheaper resource as well as resulting in a positive impact on society by reducing dependence on fossil fuels and reducing air pollution related deaths.
Nuclear energy has is an overall success and continues to be because it is a reliable, efficient energy source that produces minimal pollution. Although it is a efficient energy source, it is also a massive destructive force that has been used in the past and can be used in the future if not properly defended against. America today can learn from instances in the 20th century such as the atomic bomb drops, exploration of fusion reactions, the knowledge gained from the three mile island accident, and from espionage. Nuclear technology is basically that manipulation of atoms in their current state. Usually radioactive elements such as high-grade plutonium or uranium are used in order to create a massive radioactive reaction that have the potential to obliterate any object in its way leaving a lasting negative effect on the environment. Nuclear energy was mainly researched for the atomic bomb droppings that occurred in 1945 as a result of Japanese oppression during World War II. The science of atomic manipulation, atomic radiation, nuclear fission and nuclear fusion was first developed in 1895. Research began to significantly speed up when the government took a large interest in the destructive force that nuclear weapons had the potential to hold. The only reason that the world ever had the experience of nuclear energy was because of World War II and oppression. Nuclear Energy came with a price of thousands of lives, that were not rightfully taken, but without those lives lost, our world would be different today, and we continue to learn from the mistakes and from the successes that we have had with nuclear technology.
The use of nuclear power in the mid-1980s was not a popular idea on account of all the fears that it had presented. The public seemed to have rejected it because of the fear of radiation. The Chernobyl accident in the Soviet Union in April of 1986 reinforced the fears, and gave them an international dimension (Cohen 1). Nevertheless, the public has to come to terms that one of the major requirements for sustaining human progress is an adequate source of energy. The current largest sources of energy are the combustion of coal, oil, and natural gas. Fear of radiation may push nuclear power under the carpet but another fear of the unknown is how costly is this going to be? If we as the public have to overcome the fear of radiation and costly project, we first have to understand the details of nuclear energy. The known is a lot less scary then the unknown. If we could put away all the presumptions we have about this new energy source, then maybe we can understand that this would be a good decision for use in the near future.
In the search for alternatives to fossil fuels, scientists and policy makers have focused on three options: nuclear power, energy from biomass; and a combination of wind, water, and solar power. Nuclear power, however, is much more costly and runs the risk of having it fall into the wrong hands where it could be turned into a weapon of mass destruction. The third option entails wind turbines, photovoltaic power plants and rooftop systems, concentrated solar thermal power plants,...
Nuclear energy is very efficient and reliable. Unlike wind and solar farms, nuclear power plants can operate twenty-four hours everyday unless subjected to maintenance and can produce a constant energy output that is not affected by weather conditions. Solar energy relies on the sun to produce solar power, making it impo...