By Vinh Nguyen and Rodrigo Angeles
The use of nuclear power to produce electricity has its benefits like how it doesn’t produce direct carbon dioxide emission and drawbacks like how a simple human error could cause a lifetime devastation. The question is, which one would outweigh the other? Nuclear Power has changed over time and is now safer than it was before. according to BBC, there hasn’t been a nuclear power plant accident since September 12, 2011 in France. However, critics of nuclear power remain skeptical about it.
There is no one type of nuclear power; each nuclear power plant differs on how they obtain energy. One of the simplest design is the Boiling Water Reactor Plant which involves a coolant water surrounding the reactor that allows it to boil and steam; the steam is then piped directly to turbines which produce rotary mechanical power that turns electrical generators.
A very different type of power plant that was popular in Great Britain for some time was a design that used carbon dioxide as a coolant. The carbon dioxide gas passed through the reactor core which absorbs heat produced by fission reactions which is then piped into a secondary system where it gives up some of its energy to water, which begins to boil. The steam is then later used to power a turbine; a generator.
Nuclear power can have a low environmental impact as long as there aren’t any accidents. According to a researcher named Tai Thomas from Stanford University, “Nuclear energy by far has the lowest impact on the environment since it does not release any gases like carbon dioxide or methane, which are largely responsible for greenhouse effect”.
Nuclear power plants do not emit carbon dioxide during operations. However, it does emits large amounts of carbon dioxide during the building process. According to U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Nuclear power plants also have large amounts of metal and concrete, which require large amounts of energy to manufacture.” In order to acquire the large amount of energy, more fossil fuel must be burn, which would produce more Carbon.
Tai Pham is a student from Yerba Buena High School, who’s also an AP Environmental Science student had this to say, “we should invest in nuclear power energy because right now it’s better than fossil fuel and it can help reduce carbon dioxide emission.”
Nuclear power plants uses elements Uranium-233, Uranium-235, and Plutonium-239 as fuel. Although these elements are finite resources, which makes nuclear power plant nonrenewable, one single pellet of Uranium contains high amount of energy. According to greeningforward.org,
“Nuclear power plants ran on Uranium; an element so energy-rich that a single fuel pellet the size of a finger tip contains as much energy as 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas, 1,780 pounds of coal or 199 gallons of oil.”
The use of nuclear power to produce electricity has its benefits like how it doesn’t produce direct carbon dioxide emission and drawbacks like how a simple human error could cause a lifetime devastation. The question is, which one would outweigh the other? Nuclear Power has changed over time and is now safer than it was before. according to BBC, there hasn’t been a nuclear power plant accident since September 12, 2011 in France. However, critics of nuclear power remain skeptical about it.
There is no one type of nuclear power; each nuclear power plant differs on how they obtain energy. One of the simplest design is the Boiling Water Reactor Plant which involves a coolant water surrounding the reactor that allows it to boil and steam; the steam is then piped directly to turbines which produce rotary mechanical power that turns electrical generators.
A very different type of power plant that was popular in Great Britain for some time was a design that used carbon dioxide as a coolant. The carbon dioxide gas passed through the reactor core which absorbs heat produced by fission reactions which is then piped into a secondary system where it gives up some of its energy to water, which begins to boil. The steam is then later used to power a turbine; a generator.
Nuclear power can have a low environmental impact as long as there aren’t any accidents. According to a researcher named Tai Thomas from Stanford University, “Nuclear energy by far has the lowest impact on the environment since it does not release any gases like carbon dioxide or methane, which are largely responsible for greenhouse effect”.
Nuclear power plants do not emit carbon dioxide during operations. However, it does emits large amounts of carbon dioxide during the building process. According to U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Nuclear power plants also have large amounts of metal and concrete, which require large amounts of energy to manufacture.” In order to acquire the large amount of energy, more fossil fuel must be burn, which would produce more Carbon.
Tai Pham is a student from Yerba Buena High School, who’s also an AP Environmental Science student had this to say, “we should invest in nuclear power energy because right now it’s better than fossil fuel and it can help reduce carbon dioxide emission.”
Nuclear power plants uses elements Uranium-233, Uranium-235, and Plutonium-239 as fuel. Although these elements are finite resources, which makes nuclear power plant nonrenewable, one single pellet of Uranium contains high amount of energy. According to greeningforward.org,
“Nuclear power plants ran on Uranium; an element so energy-rich that a single fuel pellet the size of a finger tip contains as much energy as 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas, 1,780 pounds of coal or 199 gallons of oil.”
Unlike wind and solar energy, nuclear power can provide energy at a high efficiency rate for 24/7 regardless the time of day and weather. Therefore, nuclear power can be a combo with wind and solar. The electricity can be lowered when good wind and solar resources are available and cranked up when the demand is high.
There are benefits to nuclear power but like all other power sources it has its flaws. Negatives for nuclear energy is the fact that if one were to have a meltdown the consequences can be catastrophic and felt for years, such as with Chernobyl, for example. The Chernobyl Accident was happened on April 26, 1986 when a sudden surge of power during a reactor system test caused the destruction of Unit 4 of the nuclear power station at Chernobyl.
According to The Gale Encyclopedia of Science, to be able to create a modern nuclear power plant would cost 3 to 4 billion dollars to make in the U.S. A typical nuclear reactor produces about 20 metric tons of nuclear fuel every year but the fuel is radioactive and potentially dangerous ,costs money to move the waste to specially designed storage space , takes hundreds of years for the waste to decay and reach adequate levels of safety.
There are organizations like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission(NRC) that help regulate nuclear power
plants. We asked them what does the organization do when there is a natural disaster near or at a power plant. They said,
“The NRC’s requirements for nuclear power plants include ensuring the plants can safely withstand severe natural events such as earthquakes, flooding, hurricanes and tornadoes.”
They also said that there are cases of nuclear power plants remaining safe during natural disasters.
“The past few hurricane seasons provide several examples of U.S. reactors remaining safe during events such as Superstorm Sandy and Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Florence and Michael. Plants on the East Coast also remained safe after a strong earthquake in Virginia during August 2011”
The advantages that the nuclear power provides does outweigh its disastrous drawbacks. Although it’s expensive to build, it’s relatively cheap to run. Not to mention the fact that our main source of electricity will be depended on nuclear power once we have depleted our fossil fuel resources.
Nuclear power is important and very relevant still today because it’s widely used across the world. All of the world’s powerful countries has some sort of nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are such a big issue that it would often be on the front page of the news. Today’s nuclear bombs are so strong, it can completely eliminate an entire city easily. Just imagine the one that was dropped on Hiroshima but multiply that by a thousand.
There are benefits to nuclear power but like all other power sources it has its flaws. Negatives for nuclear energy is the fact that if one were to have a meltdown the consequences can be catastrophic and felt for years, such as with Chernobyl, for example. The Chernobyl Accident was happened on April 26, 1986 when a sudden surge of power during a reactor system test caused the destruction of Unit 4 of the nuclear power station at Chernobyl.
According to The Gale Encyclopedia of Science, to be able to create a modern nuclear power plant would cost 3 to 4 billion dollars to make in the U.S. A typical nuclear reactor produces about 20 metric tons of nuclear fuel every year but the fuel is radioactive and potentially dangerous ,costs money to move the waste to specially designed storage space , takes hundreds of years for the waste to decay and reach adequate levels of safety.
There are organizations like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission(NRC) that help regulate nuclear power
plants. We asked them what does the organization do when there is a natural disaster near or at a power plant. They said,
“The NRC’s requirements for nuclear power plants include ensuring the plants can safely withstand severe natural events such as earthquakes, flooding, hurricanes and tornadoes.”
They also said that there are cases of nuclear power plants remaining safe during natural disasters.
“The past few hurricane seasons provide several examples of U.S. reactors remaining safe during events such as Superstorm Sandy and Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Florence and Michael. Plants on the East Coast also remained safe after a strong earthquake in Virginia during August 2011”
The advantages that the nuclear power provides does outweigh its disastrous drawbacks. Although it’s expensive to build, it’s relatively cheap to run. Not to mention the fact that our main source of electricity will be depended on nuclear power once we have depleted our fossil fuel resources.
Nuclear power is important and very relevant still today because it’s widely used across the world. All of the world’s powerful countries has some sort of nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are such a big issue that it would often be on the front page of the news. Today’s nuclear bombs are so strong, it can completely eliminate an entire city easily. Just imagine the one that was dropped on Hiroshima but multiply that by a thousand.