Malaika Mehta MYP5A

Nuclear Energy: The Energy Of The Future?

Energy is very important in today’s world. The current energy supply is produced from coal, gas and oil. The demand for energy is rising and the rate of usage is increasing day in day out because of the rising population. As a result the amount of resources to provide energy are depleting. Fossil fuels have served us well but it has been projected that gas will run out in 50 years and oil in about 30 years. This dichotomy with a rising population and decrease in resources has lead to the energy crisis around the world. Change needs to come because a large scale of combustion is becoming dangerous to human health and fossil fuels are becoming very difficult to find and extract because easily recoverable fossil fuels have already been extracted in the past two hundred years. There are two solutions to this problem, renewable energy or nuclear power plant. Renewable energy is very expensive and uses a lot of land. They also cannot generate enough power but nuclear energy can produce energy at a 91% efficiency rate every day. Unfortunately the word ‘nuclear’ has become a taboo after Hiroshima.

Nuclear power uses a method called nuclear fission to make its energy. In 1940 during the Second World War, two German chemists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, discovered that when neutrons irradiate the nuclei of uranium 235 and plutonium 239, they split into two pieces because of the instability, leading to great energy and emission of neutrons. The energy produced is a lot and for some of it that is used, the rest is released as heat and radiation. The energy produced from 1g of uranium is equal to energy produced by 3 tons of coal. The energy produced can be controlled and used to generate electricity. Now the question is weather nuclear power is the solutions to the energy crisis or does it just pose a treat to the world? The nuclear power controversial has been there for a long time. People for it say that it is very clean and a lot of energy can be produced from it. On the other end, many people are against it and their arguments are that the disposal of nuclear waste is very dangerous to the environment and if the waste is put underground, water will be affected and we wont have drinking water. Are these statements true or just misinformation? Is nuclear power less damaging to the earth than coal and oil? Is radioactive waste a permanent problem with no solution? To answer these questions, I will analyze the advantages and disadvantages of nuclear power.

Figure 1: amount of energy used globally from different sources in 2009Figure 1: amount of energy used globally from different sources in 2009

Malaika Mehta MYP5A

Advantages of Nuclear Power Does not release green house gases Does not pollute the environment There is a large supple that is enough for thousands of years Can provide electricity where renewable sources are limited Costs to operate are low

Nuclear power provides a lot of energy without releasing green house gasses. Nuclear power can replace fossil fuels, which releases approximately one third of the green houses gasses, as a source of energy. Nuclear power currently produces around 15% of electricity around the world, hence reducing about two billion tons of carbon dioxide released. Nuclear power generates more energy that other energy sources like solar plants and wind plants. Nuclear power plants generate 2.2 million KW while solar plants produce 150000 KW and wind plants produce 100000 KW. Nuclear power plants also require much less land.

Disadvantages of Nuclear Power Costs to construct and dispose are high Takes a long time to build

Figure 2: how is energy generated by using nuclear power plant

Figure 3: amount of greenhouse gas emission from different energy sourcesFigure 3: amount of greenhouse gas emission from different energy sources

Malaika Mehta MYP5A

Radiations released are not safe Radioactive waste must be stored with security Public is scared about the safety and transport of nuclear energy Do not know how long term storage will impact the environment

Nuclear power can be a safety and security risk for the whole world. If there is a nuclear meltdown, radiation in released into the environment and people can suffer from radiation poisoning which can result to sickness, bleeding or even death. Radiation also increases the risk of cancer but it will only be visible after years. The incident in Hiroshima has prompted fear around the world about radiation. Even though the risks are high, mostly all nuclear power plants have harsh safety measures and security. The waste from nuclear fuel is a big problem because there is no simple way to dispose it. If it were disposed in the environment, there would be a risk for thousands of years and for every living thing on this earth. Currently nuclear water is put in dry casks where rods are immersed in inert gas that is inside a contained layered in steel and concrete. However these containers are up to $1 million each and they still emit radiation at low levels. This solution is only temporary and cannot be used when nuclear power is used by the whole world. There is one option to recycle the fuel by an enrichment reprocessing method but this method has cost effectiveness issues and still produces radioactive waste.

So Is Nuclear Energy The Future?People must now face the reality that coal, gas and oil will not be there forever to provide us with energy. We are so dependent on fossil fuels that they are running out. We try to discover different alternatives for these but the reality is that only nuclear fission technology is capable to deliver the enormous quantities of energy we need, to run our modernized world with minimal emission of greenhouse gasses. The main focus for scientist should now be to convert the world electrical energy generated from fossil fuels to nuclear fission. Nuclear energy meets all the criteria set by the U.N. on sustainability. Renewable energy should also be used simultaneously with nuclear energy because if we only use nuclear energy, uranium and plutonium will run out. Renewable energy cannot be used all the time because it is not reliable due to the weather constraint and if we use renewable energy only, we would not be able to produce enough for the requirements. We should use a gradual and systematically planned way to go ahead with nuclear energy.

References Firstprinciplesjournal.com,. 'First Principles - Nuclear Power And The Energy

Crisis'. N.p., 2015. Web. 7 Oct. 2015. Reidy, Kate. 'Could Nuclear Power Solve Our Energy Crisis?'. Trinity News |

Ireland's Oldest Student Paper. N.p., 2014. Web. 7 Oct. 2015. Sciencedirect.com,. 'Why Nuclear Energy Is Sustainable And Has To Be Part

Of The Energy Mix'. N.p., 2015. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.

Figure 1: http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/4cbb2fbdcadcbb4209130000/chart.jpgFigure 2: http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/images/2015/08/np-how-Pressurized-Water-Reactors-work.gifFigure 3: http://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/images/item/ghg-energy.jpg