Nuclear Power of the future

Authors Avatar

Is Nuclear Power the future energy source?

Medora Choi 11AM

Chinese International School

Yr 11 MYP Science
What are the benefits and

limitations of Nuclear Technology?
Mr. T. Fryer

Medora Choi 11AM

27th February, 2009

Is Nuclear Power the Possible Future Energy Source?

        When the term “nuclear power” crosses your mind, what is the instant thought in your mind? Is it Homer Simpson, half-asleep at the control panel of his town’s nuclear reactor? Is it a supermarket tabloid photo showing a baby born with three heads because its mother lived next to a nuclear power plant? (Giacobello 5) In the world we are living now, nuclear power seem to make people fear the most our of all the other energy sources. The reason why they fear the nuclear power is because the mountain of histories it has made. At the end of World War II, nuclear weapons were used when the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were bombed by the United States. And the nuclear reactor of the former Soviet Union’s Chernobyl exploded in 1896 in the Ukraine. (Giacobello 6) Therefore, Nuclear power not only is a tool that can be used beneficially, it can also be used for the destruction of humanity, let’s explore the positive and negative ways it has been used already, the discoveries being made today, and most importantly, this resource’s potential for our future.

        Before explaining the potential usage of nuclear power, we should know how nuclear power works first. Uranium is a radioactive chemical material. It is also the source of nuclear power. A dense metal found in Earth’s crust, uranium was discovered in 1789. Atoms are the tiny building blocks of all material on Earth, and nuclear energy is created when a uranium atom is split. When the atom splits, it releases energy in the form of heat. Often a few neutrons are also released in the split. These neutrons may split other nuclei, releasing more heat and more neutrons. This chain reaction is called nuclear fission. It is what makes nuclear power possible. The heat therefore is released b y nuclear fission is what we use to produce electricity. (Giacobello 14)  We do not have worry about using up the uranium, because there’s plenty of it in the earth, and to generate power, only a small amount is needed. On the contrary, the amount of oil and coal we use to create electricity is much more than uranium. But not all uranium is radioactive. Only about 0.7 percent of uranium is the isotope U-235, the isotope needed for fission. (Giacobello 15)

Join now!

        The issues surrounding nuclear power are complicated. Many people are still uncertain whether to support the use of nuclear power or not. An important step toward greater understanding of this future energy issue is to examine its pros and cons.

        The threat of global warming is a serious issue. Fossil fuel gives out carbon dioxide when they are burned. It is shown that this emission traps the heat and stays in our atmosphere and affecting the overall temperature and causes it to rise, which is how global warming is created. Now the good point about nuclear fission is stated ...

This is a preview of the whole essay