Should Houston Use Nuclear Energy
When it comes to energy there are so many different options. Do you go for renewable energy and plan for the future? Or do you go for nonrenewable and do what is best right now.
I believe that the city of Houston should use nuclear energy to provide energy to the fourth largest city in America. Nuclear energy is the most efficient and reliable source of large-scale, around-the-clock source of power. Nuclear power plants maintain a national average reliability between 85 and 90 percent. Many power plants routinely operate at 93 to 95 percent capacity over extended periods. By splitting uranium atoms inside a reactor in a process called fission we create a huge amount of energy. At the moment nuclear energy is not renewable. This is because in the process creating nuclear power uranium 235 is needed and uranium 235 is fossil fuel. There are many factors that are not in the equation of nuclear energy currently. Such as the argument made by Bernard L Cohen, a former professor at University of Pittsburgh who said, the term …show more content…
According to Professor Cohen, if the Uranium deposit could be proved to last as long as the relationship between the Earth and Sun is supposed to last (5 billion years) then nuclear energy should be included in the renewable energy portfolio. The actual amount of uranium deposit available is way more than what is considered extractable right now, once we can extract uranium from other sources such as uranium from the eroding earth crust by river water. Another major upside to nuclear energy is that the amount of carbon emissions released into the air is minuscule compared to coal or other non-renewable energy sources. Other than the fact that at the moment nuclear energy is non-renewable, the only downside is that the
I believe that the city of Houston should use nuclear energy to provide energy to the fourth largest city in America. Nuclear energy is the most efficient and reliable source of large-scale, around-the-clock source of power. Nuclear power plants maintain a national average reliability between 85 and 90 percent. Many power plants routinely operate at 93 to 95 percent capacity over extended periods. By splitting uranium atoms inside a reactor in a process called fission we create a huge amount of energy. At the moment nuclear energy is not renewable. This is because in the process creating nuclear power uranium 235 is needed and uranium 235 is fossil fuel. There are many factors that are not in the equation of nuclear energy currently. Such as the argument made by Bernard L Cohen, a former professor at University of Pittsburgh who said, the term …show more content…
According to Professor Cohen, if the Uranium deposit could be proved to last as long as the relationship between the Earth and Sun is supposed to last (5 billion years) then nuclear energy should be included in the renewable energy portfolio. The actual amount of uranium deposit available is way more than what is considered extractable right now, once we can extract uranium from other sources such as uranium from the eroding earth crust by river water. Another major upside to nuclear energy is that the amount of carbon emissions released into the air is minuscule compared to coal or other non-renewable energy sources. Other than the fact that at the moment nuclear energy is non-renewable, the only downside is that the