When the term Nuclear Power or Nuclear Energy gets used usually the first things that come to mind for most people are bombs, destruction, war, and deformed humans. Which in fact are four things that occur the least in the nuclear power field. Nuclear power is much more than just bombs and destruction, bombs barely even take up a percentage of the total amount of nuclear energy used in the world today. Most all of the nuclear energy used today comes in the form of production of electricity. Nuclear power plants are responsible for 16% of all of the world’s electricity production; which really may not sound like a lot, but when you think of the amount of electricity used in the world it really puts it into prospective how vital nuclear power is to us all.
These days, nuclear technology is used in several applications. Some of these include: medicinal, power and of course military. Out of these, nuclear energy based power is getting popular. In any case, because of growth in applications, based on nuclear technology, there are several nuclear installations being found at industrial scale. In general, nuclear installations are highly sophisticated, and, have lots of control measures in place to prevent any major hazard. Still, it’s a fact, that inspite of all these sophistications etc. accidents could still occur. The problem with nuclear accidents is – though, less frequent (due to high degree of sophistication and control measures), but, once an accident occurs, the impact is severe.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Consultation- this is your first stage where you have to get different opinions from other people about what they think about the law that you want to introduce. You can do this by creating a survey, questionnaire, asking people face to face etc. If you get you get positive or negative feedback then you can go through to the next stage which is the green paper.…
- 575 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Assess the situation and environment, if the casualty is obviously conscious, talk to them and find out how they are. Make area safe,…
- 2506 Words
- 7 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Nuclear power is produced through the use of nuclear reactions to produce nuclear energy that can then be harnessed to generate heat and create superheated steam to drive turbines. The most common nuclear reaction is that of nuclear fission, which is the splitting of an atom’s nucleus into smaller nuclei. Nuclear reactions are incredibly energy dense and thus allow nuclear reactors to make a tremendous amount of electricity. There are only 61 nuclear power plants in the United States, but they account for 19 percent of the entire country’s electricity production. [8][14] There are 7,304 total power plants in the United States, so nuclear plants on average produce over twenty-eight times as much energy as another plant in the U.S.…
- 730 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Many people around the world ask themselves what are the disadvantages of adopting an alternative solution to solve the consumption of global nuclear energy? Based on what we have experienced through events with major disasters and the aftermath of many casualties, it has summed up to result in having failures outgrowing expectations. Therefore, global nuclear power usage is to be opposed due to the fact that it comes with high financial costs, nuclear waste management complications, and the fact that thousands in populations are mass numbers of casualties.…
- 530 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Today nuclear power as an efficient and low consumption energy has been used widely, however, nuclear energy has potential and serious problems which people can not control.…
- 394 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Nuclear power plants do not release harmful carbon dioxide into the environment like the fossil fuels that are mostly used. Therefore, it can actually help with the problem of global warming around the world and even here. Nuclear power plants are also considered more reliable since they do not depend on the wind or the sun in order to produce energy. This means that nuclear energy can provide a more reliable base load of energy even when the demand for energy is very high like during the summer months when everyone is using their air conditioners.…
- 848 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Nuclear power does not put out green house gasses, nuclear power does not pollute our water, and unlike some people believe nuclear power does not release toxic gasses into the air. Some people believe that it produces toxic gases into the air because they see the white clouds that come out of the top of the power plant cooling towers, but in fact those white clouds are actually just the water vapor that has been used to cool the systems, it is not toxic and therefore does not pollute the air. Nuclear energy uses either plutonium or uranium, depending on the type of the reactor. Nuclear reactors produce less waste than any other type of energy source. One pound of plutonium can produce the same amount of energy as 50,000 barrels of oil. The number of deaths caused by coal powered plants is about 24,000 a year. There were only 56 direct deaths caused by the Chernobyl reactor meltdown. Fukushima had no direct deaths, and the only other reported deaths were of the 3 men who were testing a portable reactor in Arco, Idaho. Arco was also the very first city in the world to be powered by nuclear…
- 791 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Humans have always tried to find innovative, powerful and valid energy sources in order to be able to supply the several needs of modern societies. In this sense, nuclear power is considered one of the most controversial technologies related to the new millennium.…
- 310 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Canada 10% o South Africa 10% Uranium enrichment: ore is refined to increase concentration of U-‐235 and processed into small pellets Nuclear reactor: device that initiates and maintains controlled nuclear fission chain reaction to produce electricity Pellets that are packed into fuel rod and grouped into fuel assemblies 200 rods per assembly and 150-‐200 assemblies per reactor Final steps of fuel cycle: o Radioactive “spent” fuel must be safely stored for thousands of years o Nuclear plants must be retired after life span (15-‐60 years) – radioactive materials must be stored or disposed of Nuclear power today: US: 104 nuclear reactors in 31 states o Accounts for 8-‐9% of overall energy and 19-‐20% of all electricity • France: 59 reactors – 77% of all electricity Controversies over nuclear energy 1.) Costs: Why so expensive? o Up front costs high – so delays very expensive o Technology is complex o Decommissioning expensive o Regulatory compliance expensive • Nuclear power plants require government $$$ – would not exist without government support! • 2.)…
- 7330 Words
- 249 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Reasons Australia’s environment is unique far outweighs the insane minimal reasons it is considered not. Australia has the world’s most unique fauna and flora, our landforms are like no other, the geographical perspective on how Australia was formed is unlike any country/continent and finally the natural hazards Australia experiences on a daily basis is unlike the world has seen. Thus it is obvious to say that Australia definitely has the most unique environment in the world.…
- 679 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Nuclear power uses unstable elements like uranium. Uranium is constantly going through a process called nuclear decay, which means the atom is splitting apart over a period of time, measured in half-lives. This is why it is the element of choice for nuclear power plants. Uranium is special because it can go through what is called induced fission. Induced fission is when a free neutron is fired at an atom (like uranium). The atom will absorb the neutron, and immediately becomes unstable and splits apart. When the uranium atom splits, it will split into two separate atoms and expels two or three neutrons depending on how the atom splits. A single uranium atom, when going through induced fission, will release about 200 MeV (million electron volts). The atoms contained in one pound of uranium release as much energy as burning 1,000,000 gallons of gas. There are pros and cons of nuclear power, but is nuclear energy worth the risks?…
- 688 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Humanity is using coal and oil faster than earth can make it, if people use oil too much then it can be run out in the next 70 years. Furthermore, nuclear power work in a same way like other power plants work, but instead of using coal or gas to generate heat, they use nuclear fission reactions. A fission reaction is a heavy nucleus that split suddenly with another particle to release energy. Mostly, the heat from the nuclear reactions convert water into steam, which drives turbines that produce electricity. However, nuclear fission…
- 662 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Nuclear Power is reliable yet controversial source of energy in the U.S. Many people have different viewpoints on Nuclear energy. Although nuclear energy can cause many problems such as nuclear accidents, it saves money, produces less pollution, and it can be made in any environment. The benefits of nuclear energy outweigh the risks. Without nuclear energy we would be relying on the weather for energy.…
- 347 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Throughout the world, countries are leaning towards nuclear energy due to the amount of energy it can produce with very little resources. This topic is worth investigating since energy is basically a must, now in the 21st century. It is now considered an essential to have energy in our lives to maintain our standards of living. We have gone to many different sources of energy other than nuclear energy such as coal, solar, wind, oil and more, but many of those energy source have flaws too. Some sources of energy will reach the peak of their production due to resources and will eventually fall, others pollute the environment just like nuclear energy and some just don’t produce enough energy for us to fully rely on them. Many countries needed a new source of energy since…
- 791 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
National and international laws, treaties and conventions govern the requirements for nuclear power plants in any country. These laws and treaties are developed to address some of the following issues; radiology safety, safe construction, commissioning and operation, safeguards, handling nuclear material and protecting the environment, handling of nuclear emergencies and accidents and nuclear liability and coverage. The appropriateness of some of the requirement specification for a new nuclear plant, demands that there should be;…
- 2181 Words
- 9 Pages
Better Essays