Nuclear Technology
Nuclear energy has massively revolutionized our ability to produce energy with zero carbon emissions since it’s developpement after the scientific discovery of quantum mechanics. According to a study from NASA; “nuclear power prevented an average of over 1.8 million net deaths worldwide between 1971-2009” (Pushker Kharecha and James Hansen, 2013).
The energy produced from Nuclear power plants is safe and reliable in comparison to coal fuel. Since Nuclear energy relies on small fuel cells of uranium to produce large amounts of heat, it only pumps water vapor into the atmosphere, rather than harmful CO2, which has shown to cause health complications to humans, such as asthma and lung cancer. The energy can be added to the grid at any time, which allows for more reliable energy production over solar or wind power alternatives.
A strong advantage to nuclear power is the ability for innovation and jobs. While most believe nuclear power to be tremendously advanced, the current technology is rather outdated and has been used since 1970. New designs that rely on Thorium rather than Uranium may have 200x the energy output for the same amount of Uranium. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVbLlnmxIbY
Although nuclear energy is a reliable and safe means of energy production, it is not well received by the public, and the controversy is not entirely based on fallacy but rather has strong logical merit. Nuclear energy has been and most likely will remain strongly attached to nuclear weapons. The more we discover and innovate nuclear reactors, the stronger the reactor, the stronger the bombs. In 45 years, 5 countries have been able to develop nuclear weapons with the help and research of current nuclear reactors including Israel, Iran, South Africa, Pakistan and North Korea.
Spent Nuclear fuel is not only radioactive, but severely detrimental to the environment. We currently have no good way of recycling spent nuclear fuels. Stronger elements, such as plutonium, can be extracted in order to lessen the harmfulness of spent fuels, that take tens of thousands of years to deteriorate. However this extracted plutonium cannot be used in conventional nuclear reactors, and has no purpose, and can be used as a stronger nuclear weapon should it be chosen as its purpose. Of the 40 countries using nuclear energy, only Finland is serious about finding a permanent civilian waste storage for spent fuels.
There have also been 7 major catastrophes over 60 years caused by meltdowns. Though 3 were contained, 4 of the reactors released extremely harmful amounts of radiation into adjacent towns and areas. This has destroyed all of those environments and has rendered those areas in Russia, Ukraine and Japan uninhabitable for decades to come. These deaths have been estimated to be within the thousands, and poses serious health risks and questions.
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