Nuclear Energy Research Paper

Submitted By sunwow
Words: 1085
Pages: 5

When the world will run out of fossil fuels and what happens after that? These are the common questions that most people realize nowadays because the world depends on the gas prices. When the gas price goes up, it is a chain pulling everything up, such as food, beverages, stationary, books, tissue paper, and so on. Mankind has been searching for a new source of energy for many centuries. Most of them are not sustainable and emit pollution. Then, natural energy is an alternative way, but it is not stable. Now, one of the best kinds of energy is nuclear energy. It produces more energy and emits less pollution. In exchange, a trade-off of nuclear energy is far more dangerous. One of the most famous stories about nuclear disaster is the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in Soviet Union in 1986, and another recent incidence is the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan in 2011. However, nuclear energy is far better in comparison to the others energy. For these three following reasons that is why we should support nuclear energy. First of all, nuclear energy is more sustainable. People have been using energy for a long time. Wood is the oldest energy source. Mankind has burned wood to create heat for tens of thousands of years. After the Industrial Revolution started in 1760, people burnt a lot of wood on the earth faster than they could create it. Wood became more and more expensive so people had to look for a new energy source. Eventually, coal was used for energy because it is cheaper than wood. Many industries changed to use coal instead of wood. Until 1960, oil energy began to be used in industries because it was cheap, and there was a lot of oil in the world. Even in the U.S.A., there are large oil fields in California and Texas. Consequently, because gas was inexpensive, most Americans own cars. Now, oil is still being used to generate energy. However, there are no longer than three generations, mankind will run out of oil energy. The Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) estimated that there are still 3.74 trillion barrels of oil left in the earth, and U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that in 2012 people consumed around 88,762 thousand barrels per day and it is increasing every year. In other words, the earth will run out of oil before 2100. On the other hand, because uranium is the main source of nuclear energy, nuclear energy is more sustainable than other energy. The EIA predicts in Annual Energy Review 2009 that in 2008 there were around 1.8 billion pounds of uranium oxide reserves under the U.S.A., mostly in Wyoming and New Mexico (“Energy Reserves”). Nuclear reactors can also run on thorium fuel, which is less radioactive, more abundant than uranium and also produces much less waste (Cooper, “Superfuel: Thorium”). Nuclear energy is better for ecology. Many people always are concerned about the environment, but they still keep using biofuel or fossil fuel, such as wood, coal, oil. Those materials contain carbon atoms which after combustion, they will produce carbon dioxide (CO2) and it is an important greenhouse gas which have been making the world warmer every year. This climate change causes many people has died each year more than nuclear power plants accidents. Moreover, oil spills, pollution down the drain, and offshore drilling are one of the big problems that cause the ocean to be dirty. It kills not only sea life but also kill creatures that eat fish, such as birds or even human. Nevertheless, nuclear energy is the cleanest energy. It does not produce pollution. Nuclear energy can reduce climate change and recover the world. It would make people healthier from the fresh air. Nuclear power reactors are one of the safest places in the world. Nuclear reactors are high quality design and high quality construction. There are many layer constructions between the nuclear radioactive core and the outside environment. First, radioactive fission products remain bound inside solid ceramic