Nuclear Power Essays (1138 words) - Nuclear Technology,

Nuclear Power Entering the twenty-first century, six billion people inhabit the earth. A number that is expected to double in a hundred and twenty years, yet only 4% of that world population lives in the Untied States. Even though the Untied States is only 4% of the population of the world, it still uses 25% of the world's resources. This statistic is most important with the argument of food consumption, with so many countries starving, but it also means that the United States uses 25% of the world's energy resources. Coal and oil are a major energy provider around the world, particularly in the US. (See figure 1) Many countries without these abundances have turned to nuclear energy, due to its supreme effectiveness. Nuclear energy produces more energy per unit weight than coal and oil, releases no pollutants into the atmosphere and is less cancer causing than the burning of coal and oil. Yet nuclear power has been attacked in the US since the day that it was instituted as being a non-safe and environmentally non-friendly form of energy. Right now the United States does not have to worry about running out of fossil fuels for a long time, even though they generate 51.7% of the US's power, and power almost all forms of modern transportation. But what happens down the road, when all of the natural resources are gone? In many countries, such as France, nuclear power is accepted and welcome. Why is this not the same way in the US? The media and all forms of entertainment have misconstrued the facts of nuclear energy. Most people are sacred of nuclear power, the word unsafe is synonymous with nuclear power in this country, but time has shown that there is so reason for this feeling. Americans do not hold the facts on this issue. They have the unwarranted fears of a mass and free speaking culture. Nuclear energy is safe, clean, and effective. The voice that is heard among the people is that nuclear energy is unsafe to the environment. There should be no debate about the environmental concerns of nuclear power. If there is anything that makes nuclear power unpractical it is government spending. Never the less nuclear power is the cleanest form of power for a rapidly increasing world population. Nuclear reactors produce electricity by the fission of uranium, not the burning of fossil fuels, not emitting sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate soot, or greenhouse gases. In countries around the world nuclear energy is the largest source of emission-free electrical generation. Making one million kilowatt-hours of electricity in a natural gas power plant produces 550 tons of carbon dioxide. Producing the same amount in an oil-fired plant makes 850 tons of carbon dioxide and 1,110 in a coal plant. But making one million kilowatt hours of electricity in a nuclear plant creates no carbon dioxide. Not only does nuclear energy not emit any pollutants, it is causing the average of pollutants that are let into air to decline. Since 1973, the generation of electricity by US power plants has resulted in two billion fewer tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. (See figure 2) Nuclear energy has accounted for 90% of all carbon emission reductions achieved by the electric utility industry. And the fact still remains that I gram plutonium has the same energy potential as 1 ton of oil. Another major concern for the environment is what to do with the waste of a nuclear plant. It is in this area that causes people feel that nuclear power is unsafe for the environment. The fact is that the waste is radioactive for thousands of years, and if not disposed of properly could destroy the environment. In some countries, such as France, the waste from the nuclear plants is recycled making a lower amount of unusable waste. This is not done in the US, but should always be an option. The waste is stored in huge drums impermeable to any type of disaster. As a result, the nuclear energy industry is the only industry established since the industrial revolution that has managed and accounted for all of its waste, preventing adverse impacts on the environment. Yet what worries people is that the waste is radioactive. At a close range a person would only receive 3 millarems of radiation from one of the tanks, when the average person receives 350 millarems of radiation each year from everything around them. Even when the plant on Three Mile Island had a disaster in 1979, (the worst is US history)