PROS AND CONS NUCLEAR ENERGY

The Pros and Cons of nuclear energy have been a common debate today that is clearly divided into two sides. Some people think it is a reliable and cheap energy, while others warn about disasters that can be caused if people abuse it.

To my research from reliable science sources, we can simply understand nuclear or atomic energy obtained through the nuclear fertilizer, including the bombardment of an Uranian atom with neutrons so that it is divided into two, releasing a large amount of heat and then used to create Electricity.

The first nuclear power plant was inaugurated in 1956 in the United Kingdom. According to Castells (2012). Currently six countries (USA, France, Japan, Germany, Russia and South Korea) account for nearly 75% of nuclear power production (Fernández and González, 2015).

If searching for information relating to Nuclear, you surely will get information about a very famous nuclear accidents like Chernobyl or Fukushima, which made lots of people think that nuclear energy is dangerous. However, we cannot deny that this is a "clean" energy because it has very little greenhouse gas emissions.

Therefore, in this report, I am going to give some details about 3 Pros and 3 Cons of Nuclear that I think it is most outstanding.

THREE PROS:

1.       High energy density

Uranium is an element commonly used in nuclear factories to produce electricity. This has huge energy storage assets. Only one Gram Uranium is equivalent to 18 liters of gasoline and a kilogram that produces approximately equal to 100 tons of coal (Castells, 2012).

2.       Cheaper than fossil fuels

Although uranium first appears to be more expensive than oil or gasoline, the price will eventually be cheaper than fossil fuels because only a tiny amount of this element is required to produce a considerable amount of energy.

A quality nuclear power plant to operate anytime, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to supply electricity to a city; This is because the  fuel time is annually or 6 months depending on the factory. Some sources of energy are intermittent and constrained by the climate, or they depend on a steady supply of fuel (such as coal power plants) (such as the renewable source).

3.       Less Waste Production

Atomic energy can help governments meet their commitments to reduce GHG emissions. The process of operation in the nuclear factory does not emit greenhouse gases because it does not need fossil fuel. However, emissions occur during the factory's life cycle; building, operating, exploiting, and milling uranium and dismantling nuclear power plants.

Among the most important studies have been conducted to estimate the amount of CO2 released due to nuclear activity, the average value of 66 g CO2E / kWh. It is a larger emission value than other renewable resources but still lower than the emissions from fossil fuels (Sovacool, 2008).

 

THREE CONS:

1.       Unable to entirely substitute fossil materials

Nuclear energy does not represent an alternative to oil fuel, gas and coal, because to replace 10 Terawios created in the world from fossil fuel, will need 10,000 granules core.

It takes a lot of investment and time to build a nuclear factory, usually it takes more than 5 to 10 years from the beginning of construction until the start, and the very common thing is the delay that occurs in All new factories (Zimmerman 1982). In addition, the operating time is relatively short, about 30 or 40 years, and it is necessary to invest more in dismantling the factory.

2.       The harm Uranium exploitation to environment

Uranium exploitation is a very harmful activity for the environment, because to get 1 kg of uranium, it is necessary to remove more than 190,000 kg of soil (Fernández and González, 2015). In the United States, uranium resources in ordinary mines, of which uranium is the main product, estimated at 1,600,000 tons of substrates that they can recover and recover 250,000 tons of uranium

Uranium is extracted on the surface or underground, crushed and then filtered into sulfuric acid (Fthenakis and Kim, 2007). Waste is created causing soil and water pollution of the radioactive element and contributes to the destruction of the environment.

A range of researches show that Significant health dangers are associated with uranium for those who work with it and can cause a greater risk of developing lung cancer than smoking.

 

3.       Nuclear Disasters

Nuclear power plants are built with strict safety standards and their walls are made of a few meters thick concrete to isolate radioactive materials from the outside. However, they cannot say they are 100%safe. Over the past years, there have been a few accidents so far implies that atomic energy shows the risk of the health and safety of the people.

The reactor explosions discharged fission products (radioactive atoms) into the atmosphere products (radioactive atoms) were then discharged into the atmosphere by the reactor explosions. According to Gaffney et al. (2004), the radioactive nucleus joins the atmosphere immediately and travels widely around the globe with air blocks as a result of the intense atmospheric circulation.

The absorption of radioactive iodine when eating food and water is polluted and inhaled, leading to serious exposure inside the human thyroid gland.