The waste produced by the power plant has the ability to seek into the main water supply and the soil, evidently making the sources radioactive. Threats have also presented itself of possible attacks on a nuclear power plant. The dangerous and lethal effects that if a nuclear power plant were to have a meltdown are extreme. The radioactive material has the ability to travel and expand further than a uranium nuclear blast. The death toll will increase as radiation will travel for miles and miles reaching places that are not in near of the power plant.
For example, in Hiroshima "nearly 66,000 people were killed, and many survivors died after a few months because of nuclear radiation" (Atomic Archive, 2016). In addition, radioactive wastes are very harmful to the environment. These wastes contain high radioactive materials such as Uranium and Cadmium that have a long half-life and can emit radiation from ten to hundreds of years. Usually these wastes are buried under sand or thrown deep into the ocean. These wastes lead to the contamination of water and sand.
Moreover, unlike fossil fuel, it will not cause serious air pollution. Therefore, an increasing number of countries are now developing it. However, after the two serious nuclear accidents - Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disasters, the movement of anti-nuclear is keeping on emerging around the world. More and more people know that the consequence of nuclear accidents, especially these two major accidents, are disastrous to both the environment and our health. The radioactive material is still contaminating the air, water, and finally our food today.
In fact, the reactor in the Chernobyl accident was one of those Soviet designed and built reactors that have always been a safety concern for years , the accident was the result of a flawed design that was operated insufficient trained personnel, so basically it had very little relevance to the rest of the nuclear reactors and to the western ones or the ones that might be built today. (World Nuclear Association, 2015) According to report of United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effect of Atomic Radiation on Chernobyl accident, apart from the increased thyroid cancers, “there is no evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure two decades after the accident.” (UNSCEAR, 2008) Additionally, nuclear power was actually saving more lives than it killed. NASA had found that between 1971 to 2009, nuclear power had prevented 1.8 million air pollution-related deaths. (Hansen, 2013) On the other hand, people keep burning fossil fuels, creating countless cases of cancer or lung diseases , and accidents that happen in coal mines can not be avoided. (Kurzgesagt, 2015) The safety level of nuclear power plants is high and increasing, the consequences of accidents are relatively low compared with risks resulting in burning of the fossil fuels.
Nuclear energy does not result in the emission of any of greenhouses gases and other poisonous gases for instance, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide. Nuclear power produces clean and compact energy with no carbon dioxide and using it is the best way to stop the global greenhouse emission causing global warming (Greenberg and Heather 820).
This is evident in Figure … where an equivalent amount of energy is given, the nuclear energy is able to sustain power up to years, where normal fossil fuel can only sustain up to a few days. Although there are debates that the life span of nuclear power sources such as Uranium is low and is comparable to oil, this do not pose a threat as nuclear energy can be recycled. In addition, nuclear power plant only emits hot water into the environment which makes it environmental friendly. In fact, little or almost no carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere. The little amount of carbon dioxide is produced because of the mining and construction of the power plant, however the amount released is not comparable to that of other fossil fuel.
Using nuclear to produce energy is preferable compared to other system burning of fossil fuels, which causes so much of pollution with carbon dioxide. In addition to the process of nuclear system, the disposal of nuclear waste, which results during the generation of nuclear power is much easier to deal with. The reason is because it is just dumped in to a geological site where it decays over a period of time and has not negative impact on the environmental. This is also the main advantage of nuclear energy compared to the other chemical used generating system, which cause much more poisonous gases. Most of the generating energy system came up with problem that lack of source to generate enough, however, the source of nuclear power is uranium, which is available in abundance in the crust of the Earth with major deposits being uncovered in Canada and Australia.
Nuclear power is one solution to the problem of greenhouse gases. Moore (2005), the founder and chief scientist of Green Spirit Strategies, states that “a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) seems unlikely given our continued heavy reliance on fossil fuels. An investment in nuclear energy would go a long way to reducing this reliance and could actually result in reduced CO2 emissions from power generation” . He also speculates that nuclear energy would be a solution to securing the United States’ energy and meeting the energy demands of the nation. Nuclear would play a large role in reducing the greenhouse emissions and solve the climate problem in order to assure that there would not be an escalation in global warming (Knapp et al, 2010).
For example, not only are there high risks of potential meltdowns, but the nuclear waste that is is created is extremely toxic. Also, the energy source of nuclear energy is Uranium, which is a scarce resource, and its supply is estimated to last only for the next 30 to 60 years. Why are people choosing to build numerous nuclear power plants all over the world when we will eventually get stuck with them and their radioactive waste in a short period of time? The film The China Syndrome is fair to the nuclear industry because it explains the potenial dangers of a nuclear power plant realistically to the
Wildfires can engender flash flood conditions and enable soil erosion, with an increase in water runoff. Aside from deforestation, wildfires affect habitat of the environment population and distribution of species after incident is not the same. It poses risks to human life and health due to heavy smog released in the atmosphere that can cause respiratory diseases. Damages the