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Final Essay

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Imagine you had to make a choice for your community, either a nuclear power plant or a pollution creating power source such as burning coal. Which would you choose? In order to make a wise and informed choice you need to consider the pros and cons of each. Paul Fuqua once said in his book, “from the atom to nuclear power, they will save our country’s dwindling supply of fossil fuels” (Ready.illinois.gov, 2012). At the same time, there is a big risk with nuclear power plants. To support this Bernard L. Cohen talked about how if an accident occurred, the radiation would be the biggest damaging factor (Bernard L. Cohen, Risks of Nuclear Power). Today, the pros outweigh the cons, meaning that if nuclear power is used correctly it can be our friend. …show more content…

Patrick Moore, World-Nuclear Association, 2014). From 1939 to 1945, most of the development of nuclear power was for the atomic bomb (Dr. Patrick Moore, World-Nuclear Association, 2014). After World War II, it was found that the nuclear reaction releases large amounts of energy (Dr. Patrick Moore, World-Nuclear Association, 2014). That energy generated heat, which is used to create steam to drive steam turbines to produce electricity (Dr. Patrick Moore, World-Nuclear Association, 2014). It was thought that oil and coal would run out and that nuclear energy would be a substitute. In the power plants of the past there have been accidents in the reactors which resulted in much human devastation. Much has been learned about nuclear power since this …show more content…

The consequences of an accident can lead to many deaths. As the numbers of plants grow, there will be an increased risk that one of these accidents may happen, and the resulting release of radiation would be tragic (Bernard L. Cohen, Risks of Nuclear Power). An accident would result in devastation in the area surrounding the nuclear power plant. Also on the negative side, Uranium is used for these nuclear power plants. Uranium is hard to come by and in the future this resource may run out (Timeforchange.com). Another problem can be with the increase in terrorism. We could see an increase on nuclear power plants being the target for new radical terrorist groups as the results would be devastating for the United States (Timeforchange.com). Another concern for the use of nuclear power plants is that there are no solutions for the radioactive waste that is produced by these plants

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