Nuclear
At the moment 16% of the planet’s electric power is generated by nuclear fission. Nuclear fission creates an abundant amount of energy, no CO2 emissions, and takes very little space. It is cheaper than solar power but more expensive than other forms. In the past it seemed it nuclear power would become a serious contender to oil, coal and natural gas. The problem with nuclear power is disposing of the radioactive waste, the potential for accidents, the poor economics compared to oil, coal and gas, and that the uranium fuel won’t last much longer than 50 years. Nowadays however countries are redeveloping nuclear power. China and Japan are currently building reactors and believe in the promising future of nuclear fission. Nuclear fission also already produces 78% of France’s electricity. Japan is currently working to find ways to prolong the life of Uranium. They have developed a way to reprocess spent fuel and collect the plutonian and uranium from it. Nuclear power still has many opponents though because of the national and international security threats it poses. The Japanese have built buildings for UN inspectors, to ensure to the world that the use of the power plant will remain always peaceful.
If nuclear fission was used to generate 60% of New York City, 2 sq. miles would be needed and 4 reactors.
I believe that nuclear power is dangerous in this day and age, especially with terrorism. I also don’t think that it will ever be a safe enough alternative to have in my back yard. The other negative aspect is that it creates waste that we have no way of dealing with yet.
posted by Samantha @ 11:58 PM
3 Comments:
It sounds like this option has a lot of negatives. I think the expense is something that our government would not be willing to pay for. In addition, it seems like it will take up a lot of room. With the way the the United States is expanding, it seems like this is a big negative. Do you think that the positives outway the negatives in this cases. The strongest arguement for it would probably be that those other power house countries are using this power source. It really surprises me that they are using it, looking at the drawbacks that it has. Is this one of the more likely things that would be used, or is it towards the end of the idea list?
I knew of the downsides of nuclear power, but I didnt realize how many benefits it had and how it was used already. 78% of France's electricity being powered by nuclear fission surprised me.
I too, agree that it is too dangerous. Nuclear power has too many risky downsides and I dont feel that our country or any other country is ready to handle a major issue with terrorism or safe disposal methods. The last thing this planet needs is one more thing polluting it, so if nuclear fission means harmful chemicals being released into our environment, it is not the best method.
Nuclear energy has plenty of advantages as we all know, but then it can be used for massive destruction and I doubt that we are going to have any open exchange of nuclear technology in the world any time soon. Of course, even if we could use nuclear energy at its full potential here in the US, it would help us a great deal. I don’t know in how many more ways nuclear energy can be used and where does it rank on the “favored energy options” list. As you rightly pointed out there is a big downside of using nuclear energy, and although we are at a stage where we can utilize it, it might not be our best bet in the long run because of the disadvantages that come with it.
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