We have determined that with creation of nuclear power there is quite a benefit to us humans, but the question is how long can it benefit us until it fully becomes quite a threat that we cannot control or fix anymore. Nuclear energy has give the world more than 15% of its energy yearly. Scientist say that it is one of our cleanest way of making energy since it dose not emit Greenhouse gases to the atmosphere but it dose emit radioactive materials into the atmosphere that might become unstable at a point. When nuclear power creates its energy there obviously should be an output, the output for nuclear energy is nuclear waste. Even though we have found sites where we can store these gallons of nuclear waste safely. Scientist are trying to find ways to reduce the output of nuclear waste to try to make it the cleanest possible. But if a nuclear waste spill ever occurs unimaginable result might occur, imaginations of authors have resulted in imagining that if we were to touch nuclear waste we would be altered into genetically mutated humans which is uncertain.Two of the most disastrous core meltdown of world history is the Chernobyl Explosion in 1986
and the three mile island nuclear power plant core meltdown in 1979. The Chernobyl Explosion forced over 336,000 to resettle because of the massive area damaged and resulted in over 60 radiation-related deaths. Most death where caused by radiation poisoning. The world health organization concluded that there may be 4,000 extra cancer amongst the 600,000 most highly exposed people. Even today the site of the Explosion remains to be enclosed which i find scares. The three mile island forced over 140,000 people to resettle in that area. The investigators have acknowledged the problems and have learned important lessons from these disasters. Hopeful in the future we can control these occurring melt downs so that we do not have casualties in our hands and have to spend millions or billions of dollars to clean up these sites.
Scientist are finding ways to make this system cleaner and more beneficial to us hopeful it will last long and one time in the future this type of energy can be recycled where we do not have to use natural resources much and when the nuclear power plant can not output nuclear waste. Until then nuclear energy has given the world 15% of its energy and that is a lot for just one source of energy. To excel in this field it would take millions and millions of dollars to perfect this method. We will just need to rely on the advantages of nuclear energy more that the disadvantages.
Reference :
http://www.enviroliteracy.org/subcategory.php/28.html
http://timeforchange.org/pros-and-cons-of-nuclear-power-and-sustainability
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_energy
http://www.rapingmothernature.com/wp-content/gallery/chernobylexplosion/ChernobylExplosion001.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident#Lessons_learned
Great post about nuclear plants Russel.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I think nuclear energy is a great source of energy for our world to help meet demands all over the world. I am familiar with both nuclear reactor accidents that you mentioned and I believe that those two accidents should be a learning experince for other nuclear power plants around the world to ensure the safety of the dangerous chemicals thye are handling and to ensure that they themselves are wearing and using the proper equipment to handle these dangerous chemicals.
I also do realize the waste material that nuclear power plants produce when they provide power for the world. There should be clear guidelines set out for the proper disposal of nuclear waste in order to prevent anyone living near any buried nuclear to become exposed to the nuclear waste. Although as you stated that this form of energy is not a permanent one, steps should be taken to learn better ways of harnessing energy naturally or possibly even through the waste material of nuclear power plants.