The term nuclear energy refers to a protected, clean, accessible as well as energy source that is competitive. Nuclear energy is the only power which can replace a critical section of the fossils fuels such as oil, coal, and gas which are known to widely contaminate the environment as well as contributing to the effect of the greenhouse. It is such importance for a human being to promote the profoundly fair use of power if one needs to be seriously concerning the change of climate to eliminate the fossils fuels. Notably, clean, safe as well as reliable sources such as wind and solar energy should be on far front applied whenever possible; hence this makes people leave a sustainable lifestyle. However, this will not be jointly adequate in lowering the accumulation of atmospheric carbon monoxide, as well as satisfying the wants of industrial, social modernization along with the ambitions of the evolving nations. Therefore, nuclear energy must be organized to substitute the fossil fuels in the industrial countries, and eventually in countries that are evolving.
The only viable way for the future is an original mixture of power conservation, along with renewable energies for community low-intensity presentations, as well as nuclear power for base-load energy manufacturer. The paper explores the benefits and risks of atomic energy to human consumption; it also explains what is required in solving some of the barriers that are encountered from nuclear energy. Within this context, it is noted that if nuclear power is to be the compelling aspect of the country’s future Portfolio energy, obstacles concerning the distribution of the other nuclear plants have to be overwhelmed. Therefore, it is essential to declare the advantages of atomic power can be achieved in the way which limits nuclear security dangers as well as creation.
Benefits of using Nuclear Energy
According to the research by Comby & Bruno (26), most civilized industries use energy in their day to day operations whereby the highest percentage of the energy used worldwide comes from fossil fuel oil, gas and also coal. According to scientists, reserves for both natural gases and oil will soon be depleted therefore leaving only nuclear and coal gases available. Scientifically, fuel is a major pollutant to the environment and also contributes much towards global warming thereby its production brings about much harm than good. Finding a way to how excess carbon dioxide can be eliminated is the dream of every person; however, no one has seen a suitable way to deal with the situation. In this situation nuclear is far much better as it has benefits that coal gas do not have as discussed below.
Compared to other gases, nuclear gas is much safe. Nuclear safety is proven by the commercial operations that took place in the half century records with many years of experience. The retail industry has so far encountered a single accident where there was an explosion of nuclear power. The accident that happened on the Three Mile Island was the worst as compared to the one that took place in Chernobyl in the western power reactor. During the crash, the reactor’s core melted down and most of the molten center in the basement of the reaction vessel (Comby & Bruno 27). The released radioactivity was entirely confined in the containment of concrete structure where the silo of air had been purposely designed. Fewer radio activities that managed to get out was innocuous resulting in no injuries or deaths. Therefore, concerning nuclear success, three Mines Island was a real story for the achievement.
The Chernobyl accident was different in that its reactors lacked structure containment. On an accidental night, the faulty designers of Chernobyl had made it unstable causing Chernobyl to carry on operations on a dangerous basis. Due to the security system being bypassed intentionally, an explosion of steam occurred following power surge that would not be controlled. The moderator for graphite then burned for many weeks after it caught fire and the smoke from it brought a lot of properties of radioactivity fission to the atmosphere which was then spread too far places by winds. The incident took the lives of around forty people in a couple of months and led to injuries of more than two hundred people. Moreover, countless individuals were affected and were forced to relocate to the unknown location.
Comby & Bruno (27) further explores that, nuclear reactors bring forth the power that is the base load which can be available at any needed time. The fueling intervals have been prolonged and the refueling downtime reduced. The positive progress in the United States in years has been equal to one reactor addition to the fleet that was existing. Useful life for the reactor is forty years as designed by scientists; however, most of them attain that age while in right conditions and some even surpass the period with 20 more years.
Nuclear gas as a source of radiation is another advantage added to it. De Groot et al. (307) notes that the antinuclear green is an unknown merchandise that brings forth fear. The radioactivity fear in general is spread around to reach as many people as possible, accidents such as that in Three Mile Island and that of Chernobyl are feared that they might reoccur again. The most significant world’s fear is the fear of weapons formed by the nuclear gas. In dealing with these fears, campaigns on educating about atomic gas have been launched which turned out to be a success since nuclear can be a threat to many individuals. The campaign was a success since not many people had the required knowledge about the presence of radioactivity everywhere in the environment. Nuclear experts and organizations on the other hand have tried their best to clear the fear that exists due to the widespread beliefs of wrong interpretation of health effects of nuclear gas especially to the Hiroshima and also in Nagasaki bomb survivors. It has been noted according to studies that the experts made sure that any traces of radiation becomes delirious to individual’s health and to the related concept of dose collection. Moreover, according to the researchers carried out by scientists, an adequate radiation amount is essential and also natural not mentioning that it is vital to living (De Groot et al., 309).
Moreover, it is historically discussed that the earth, the sun, and all other planets are the giant explosion’s remnants that took place during a supernova. The explosion is approving that radiation is everywhere in the atmosphere. Everything that we are surrounded by is radioactive, and also radioactivity existed years before it was discovered by scholars. However, the amounts of radiations decrease spontaneously with time since the time life appeared on the surface of the earth, the level of natural radiation tended to be double compared to the amount of radiation today (De Groot et al., 310). Furthermore, human beings lack the knowledge that our bodies are radioactive. Eight hundred atom carry out disintegration in every second of a minute. In these hundreds, fifty percent represents potassium which is an essential element in an individual’s life, not forgetting carbon that occupies fourteen percent.
Furthermore, the antinuclear bias that existed among the environmental organizations, an example being the Greenpeace, and the bias contained a lot of ideology and less factual. More environmentalists have begun changing their thoughts on nuclear energy due to their importance, scientifically prove, reliable, and a lot of environmental reasons that positively consider atomic power. Nuclear energy is inexhaustible. Powers such as uranium are found in every part of the earth’s crust and exist in abundance compared to gases such as in that is in scarcity. Countries such as Australia and Canada turn out to be the primary deposits of the uranium gas. According to estimations stated, the market price that increases in a factor of ten enables uranium to come into the market one hundred more times. In sea waters, about four billions tonnes of uranium get dissolved, and shortly, means of recovering the sea uranium will be put in place. The inexhaustible characteristic of uranium makes it available whenever it is required (El-Hinnawi & Essam 33).
According to El-Hinnawi & Essam (33), nuclear energy produces less waste as compared other energies such as coal. For instance, a gram of uranium provides a lot of energy that is to be measured to fuel which is equivalent to one tone of coal energy. On the other hand, the waste from nuclear is about one million times less compared to residues from fossils, and it is confined in totality. Used fuels in countries such as Sweden and the United States has later stored away. However, in other parts, the used fuel is recycled, and the three percent of dangerous products found in them separated, later heavy elements are then verified to convert them into gases for storage that is safe and permanent. Plutonium and uranium that makes up the ninety-seven percent remaining gets recovered and then recycled to new element fuel that facilitates energy production. Nuclear waste volume produces minimal. For instance, in France, a particular family used atomic energy, and after lifetime, the verified waste was almost the golf ball size.
Waste from nuclear energy is required to be deposited in numerous geological sites since it cannot enter the biosphere.
Nuclear has a minimal impact on the environment since its waste decomposes spontaneously over a period unlike mercury and arsenic, which are solid chemical wastes stays forever without disintegrating (Van der Pligt & Joop 60). Wastes from fossils fuel that ascends up to the smokestack, even though they are invisible, have harmful effects to the ecosystem and also pays a significant role in global warming, the formation of acid rain that turns out to be harmful to every living creature that depends on rainwater for survival. These wastes also result in smog formation among other pollutants of the atmosphere. Furthermore, less or no traces of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide or even nitrogen oxides are produced by nuclear energy an aspect that proves atomic energy of being clean and pure unlike fossil fuel that contributes these dirty gases in large quantities (El-Hinnawi & Essam 33).
. Effects of Nuclear Energy to People and Environment
Uranium mining as associated with impacts of climate can be classified into two groups which are land impacts and water impacts. The classification can be illustrated waste and spoilt waters resulting from drainages of mining of from the water that was used in drilling leading to an occupational health hazard. The production of Radon by the decay of radioactive that are found in ores had been viewed as the primary factor that increases cancer incidents among people who work in the mines of uranium (Hodgson & Peter 47). The exposure of this harmful Radon can be controlled or minimized through the provision of artificial ventilators which are then kept in the permissible radon concentration limit. Dust generation control during the mining process is also essential in the hazardous exposure prevention of silica and radiation levels.
During the process of milling, almost seventy percent of the radioactivity that is found in the ore which the mills fed on in the stable tailings mill remains undissolved. The effects of tailing to the environment include erosion of wind in areas that are not restricted, pollution of rivers that are that are in near river bank location (Hodgson & Peter 48). Leaching of radium that occurs from water percolation and materials through piles into the water in grounds is as a result of water level rising in conditions of floods to piles bases. To avoid such destructions, stabilization of tilling against water and wind erosion for periods that are extra long. Following the emanation of radon occurring from tailing of the mill, such materials are it in backfill materials or in structural elements that connect buildings, where people reside and also individual buildings construction, should be avoided in mill tailing piles proximity.
The primary fuel fabrication potential hazard occurs when toxic hydrogen fluoride together with fluorine that is used during uranium hexafluoride production. However, to safely handle these chemicals, the establishment of industries that deal with fluorochemical is essential (Kasperson & Roger et al., 12). The hexafluoride gas that is usually produced in corrodes enriched pants, but when it is at room temperature and is stable, the chemical can easily be packed into steel cylinders. Following these safeguarding methods, materials of nuclear energy in all operations that are after the cycle must be accounted physically according to high precision. When uranium enrichment increases the accidental agglomeration risks of sufficient measures of the uranium in chain setting also increases. Adequate care is required in situations of critical accidents since such accidents cannot be predicted. Proper care helps in ensuring that such events do not occur (Whicker et al., 56). Furthermore, the residues from uranium that has depleted that comes from enriched plants are stored for future use as fertilizers; however, such materials are highly radioactive thereby producing nuclides that are more hazardous acquiring the security production, storage area access should, by all means, be limited.
When comparing gaseous emission risks that are produced by other energy the potential damages that are discharged from power plant of nuclear following normal operations are undeniably small. Rainwater & James (432) outlines that, pollution of thermal is said to be highly pronounced with plants of nuclear as compared to the fossil fuel plants. Atomic plants produce almost fifty percent more heat waste of the waters that are received by plants as compared to the plant of fossil fuel that provides the same amount of electricity. The concern of the public about operations of reactors has highly put its concentration on the occurrence possibility of an accident which may lead to considerable amount of radioactivity released to the surrounding environment. Even though different kinds of accidents may be possible in the time of operation of the nuclear reactors, a lot of safety measures are put in place and procedures during the process should be implemented that will enable reactor closure in cases where there arises serious malfunction (Samaras et al., 2).
During the reprocessing of fuel, the elements of fuel that are spent on reactors during this process have the most radioactive material intensity in the cycle of fuel. The enormous gamma radiation amount is the primary hazards which are emitted by the products of fossil fuel decay. The element that is used is paced to deep water tanks which are known as cooling ponds which are then left there for quite some time. Storing them in ponds helps in preventing a lot of fossil materials that are present and take part in the formation of critical configuration (Samaras et al., 3).
Conclusion
Even though various countries have reduced their programs that concern nuclear energy abandoning fission nuclear will however not be the best way. Increased efforts are essential at this stage of atomic energy development to different anvil impacts of the environment that are related to every step in the cycle of nuclear fission. By so doing, altered adequate measures will be implemented to ensure human beings and their surrounding environment (Samaras et al., 5). Nuclear is clean as it does not provide a lot of waste of waste materials it is safe since it takes care of the environment unlike other gases that pollute the environment. Furthermore, nuclear energy is a more competitive and a reliable source of energy. The only type of power that can adequately substitute a variety of fossil fuels such as coal, gas, and oil is the nuclear energy since these fossil fuels pollute the atmosphere thereby increasing global warming.
Therefore, to facilitate severe and effective climatic changes and to put an end to the use of oil, there we have an enormous task in promoting the general use of nuclear energy since it is renewable. Wind and water energies are also useful energies concerning renewability and too environmental friendly (Samaras et al., 6). However, even after doing all this, it might not be enough in slowing down the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and in satisfying the requirements of civilization of our industries and the developing countries’ aspiration. To attain all this, then nuclear energy should, by all means, be used to replace coal in industrial countries and later in those countries that are still developing.
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