Nuclear energy has an issue of safety. WHO said “Acute health effects such as skin burns or acute radiation syndrome can occur when doses of radiation exceed certain levels. Low doses of ionizing radiation can increase the risk of longer term effects such as cancer.” (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs371/en/) Too much exposure to radiations has a bad influence on your health. However, we should use nuclear energy because it has unique merits: generating much for long time and from a small amount of fuel and independently from environment.
When we use nuclear energy, we change the thermal generated by nuclear reactions to electricity. There are various ways of converting to electricity. For example, a radioisotope thermoelectric generator
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When the substance loses its weight, a large amount of energy equivalent to lost mass is generated. The famous formula of the equation of energy and mass: E=mc^2 show that the mass of 1 g equals about 9.0×〖10〗^10 kJ. On the other hand, the data by Petroleum Association says if 1L of gasoline burn, 33.3MJ of energy arise. (http://www.paj.gr.jp/statis/kansan/) There is a large gap between nuclear energy and energy by combustion. In this way, nuclear energy has the highest energy density. High energy density is a good point of nuclear power because this feature alleviates a burden of …show more content…
Solar photovoltaics can generate electricity for long hours if it is under sunlight. Today, solar power generator is used in various places. It is found on a house or in the university, and an artificial satellite orbiting the earth also has solar photovoltaics system. However, if we get electricity in the space where sunlight does not reach, we should use RTG. Radioactive materials decay at regular rate in any environment. This nature enables RTG to generate the same amount of electricity regularly like a battery regardless of its environment. To research the planets which move on each orbit away from the sun, some spacecrafts with RTG were launched for example Cassini, New Horizons and others. Cassini went to Mars and researched about it. Cassini launched on October 15th in 1997 and completed its mission on September 15th in 2017. It operated for 19 years, and its instruments were supported by three RTG. In case of New Horizons, it was launched on January 17th in 2006 for Kuiper Belt in which Pluto orbits and it is very cold there. New Horizons is still traveling far away from the sun. It has transmitted important information of outer border of solar system such as photographs of Pluto. New Horizons is also provided electricity and thermal by a RTG. Independence from environment is one of strong points of nuclear