Nuclear power.

There are however problems with this type of power production. The fuel is highly radioactive and this makes it toxic to humans. Radioactive emissions can cause many diseases including cancer. When a cell is bombarded by radioactive emissions then can mutate or die. Mutation can lead to cancer. If a person is exposed to large quantities of radiation then they can get radiation poisoning. This is where lots of cells in the body die at the same time as a result of exposure to radiation. This can kill within weeks or even days.

Uranium is not the be all and end all of our power problems. We will one day run out of uranium. Then we will be left with lots of radioactive power plants and stores of waste that have no use at all.

Many native peoples have suffered as the result of the need for Uranium increases. Lots of the land where uranium is mined for used to belong to the native people of the country. Now that it has been discovered the government is moving in and developing the land and this is causing the native people to lose their way of life and identity.

France has a large nuclear power station program. This is because they need large qualities of energy and do not have the large coal or oil reserves that would be need to produce the this amount of power by using fossil fuels. France has the ability to enrich reprocess and disposes of its waste, which means that it is fairly self-sufficient. France also exposes lots of electricity to the rest of Europe and this brings in about 2.6 billion Euros a year.

Russia has been involved in nuclear energy for a long time. They were involved with devastating consequences when a reactor in Chernobyl leaked radiation. This lead to the death of many people and the deformation of many more. Chernobyl has effect the way that people view nuclear power thought the world.

One of the major questions that people face when deciding if to use nuclear fuels is over waste management. Is it right for us to leave the produce radioactive waste that could effects our environment for millions of years? Some say that it the large quantities of otherwise pollution free energy that it produces make up for the small risk to the environment, besides there are very strict controls on what we release and safe ways of storing it. Other say that instead of just producing more power we should look at ways of saving it. This would eliminate the need for nuclear power and help the environment because we would be wasting less energy.

Is it morally acceptable to pursue a line of power production that has the possibility to be turned into the most powerful weapon that is on this planet? Should we be encouraging the development of such dangerous substances? One argument is that if we understand something we can better protect ourselves against it. The opposite view is that there is no way that we will ever be able to completely control these materials so we should look at other ways of producing power.

Another concern is that once a country has built a civil nuclear power program they can easily make fissile material for a nuclear bomb. To do this they would need to build a uranium enrichment plant. The government could easily claim that it is being used to produce enriched uranium for they civilian power stations. They would then have all of the materials that they would need to build a nuclear bomb. This could have long-term effects on the balance of world power and terrible environment effects if launched. Uranium is often enriched by diffusion or by using a centrifuge.

It is clear that the world has been changed by this newly available source of energy. There are those who wish to embrace it and those who want to ban it. One thing is for sure we cannot ignore it.