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Persuasive Essay On Nuclear Power

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Albert Einstein famously said, “Nuclear power is one hell of a way to boil water.” Nuclear power is also one hell of a way to fix climate change. The global climate has risen approximately one degree celsius in the past hundred years alone; that’s highest temperature increase the Earth has ever seen in its billions of years of existence. Animals are dying, sea levels are rising, and the planet is slowly deteriorating. The cause? Unreliable energy sources. The U.S. should not rely on nuclear power to fix climate change, because it is extremely dangerous, very costly, and discourages alternative energy sources.
Many might argue nuclear power is actually an excellent source of energy because it is carbon neutral, and easily accessible. While it is true nuclear reactors do not release any greenhouse gases, and uranium is easily mined in the Earth’s crust, we must remember nuclear power is not a renewable source of energy. It will not be able to sustain the energy demands of the Earth over a prolonged period of time. In addition, nuclear power has so many downsides, both environmentally and …show more content…

While it is true nuclear plant accidents don’t occur very often, when they do, the outcome is always catastrophic. When the Russian Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in 1896, an entire city was decimated and thousands of people were either killed, or injured from exposure to high levels of radiation. Though technology is improving the safety of nuclear reactors, “what do we do about high-level waste disposal?” (Kraft 2) Currently, there is no way to safely and securely store radioactive waste without the risk of another disaster like Fukushima, three consecutive nuclear meltdowns that sent thousands of tons of radioactive material into the atmosphere. Nuclear power is very unstable and dangerous; we cannot continue ignoring this fact and investing in this hazardous energy

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In “Nuclear Power is Not the Answer,” Helen Caldicott argues that pursuing nuclear energy would be a detriment to the United States. According to Caldicott, nuclear power, contrary to what the industry claims, is not clean and green, but rather a pollutant and a strong contributor to the destruction of the ozone layer. Because of the availability of uranium ore steadily decreasing, the process is requiring more and more fossil fuels to extract the ore. Caldicott projects that within ten to twenty years, nuclear reactors will be counterproductive because of the amount of fossil fuel it will take to mine the remaining uranium. In addition to air pollution, nuclear power plants also emit radioactive gases and materials that have the potential

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Helen Caldicott’s “Nuclear Power is Not the Answer” In the book-introduction “Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer,” Helen Caldicott argues that the government should stop developing nuclear power as an energy source. Supporting her point, she gives the following reasons: the nuclear energy is not efficient, not safe, not renewable and not environment-friendly. The author explains that in the process of nuclear electricity production, a lot of greenhouse gas and other pollutants are released.

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Over 20 percent of the energy in the United States comes from nuclear energy power plants. (Rinkesh, 2018) They so their best to get as much energy to the country as possible, but there are those out there who don’t agree with them. While there are downsides to nuclear energy, the pros vastly outweigh the cons. Nuclear power plants are a great way to get energy because they don’t let out much pollution, are very efficient, and are very safe.

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Nuclear power produces fewer carbon emissions than traditional energy sources because energy is not produced by burning molecules but splitting atoms. ‘An energy mix including nuclear power has the lowest impact on wildlife and Ecosystems’ as shown by a Conservation Biology paper. Consequently, greenhouse gas emissions have reduced by nearly half which shows the benefits and popularity of nuclear power use. Nuclear power has many environmental benefits such as small waste production, leaves no adverse effect on water, land or any habitats. By reducing fossil fuel consumption and switching to Nuclear Energy, we will sustain the environment, quality of air, improving the overall quality of

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The first advantage of using nuclear power to produce our electricity is that it costs only 1.92 cents per kilowatt hour to produce electricity from nuclear power. Furthermore, nuclear power is a more efficient source of energy than other sources such as coal or natural gas (Figure 5). The two biggest advantages in terms of the wellbeing of planet earth of using nuclear power are that it creates very little to no greenhouse gases, such as CO2, and also it does not use our non-renewable resources. A typical nuclear reactor utilizes uranium-235 as its source of energy, but unfortunately, uranium-235 only makes up 0.72% of all of the uranium on earth. With that being said, the fact that nuclear power does not use un-renewable resources might be being questioned at the moment, but the truth is that even though uranium-235 is a non-renewable resource, a new form of reactor called a breeder reactor, makes this a harmless process in regard to our valuable resources.

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They are having second thoughts. In addition, the costly price of nuclear power plants and nuclear inflexibilty, meaning it has slow start up and shutdown hours. Finally, as I mentioned before, nuclear waste, a very hazardous

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576 Words | 3 Pages

Nuclear power plants provide a valuable alternative to fossil fuel plants because they do not release tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This is an important environmental factor because carbon dioxide contributes to climate change. Not only do nuclear plants produce less carbon dioxide than coal burning plants, they actually release less radioactivity when they are working properly (Brain). Clearly, the environment benefits more from the use of nuclear power plants rather than fossil fuel plants.

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The Article “Why Greens Must Learn to Love Nuclear Power” that was written by Mark Lynas and published in New Statesman. He describes that the nuclear power is a suitable solution to solve global warming. In one hand, Lynas arguing that the nuclear power is an appropriate solution for the global worming because it is clean, affordable and renewable. Also, people who die from coal and oil every year are more than people who die from nuclear power.

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Fossil fuels depend on burning, “…a fossil-fueled power plant relies on the ancient technology of fire to produce heat; such plants burn hydrocarbon fuels such as methane or pulverized coal” (The Differences). This burning effect causes much of the greenhouse gases that are accused of starting climate change. Nuclear energy avoids this altogether because it produces steam which is not hurtful to the earth. “We conclude that nuclear energy…needs to be… significantly

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Nuclear power is a vital tool in the war against climate change that is frequently scrutinized for its own drawbacks. The same people who wish for nuclear power to cease functioning are also green energy advocates who do not realize the advantages to nuclear power. One of the advantages to nuclear power is the superior amount of power it generates compared to any other method of producing energy in large quantities found to this day. Nuclear energy also does not release greenhouse gases so it is a much safer way to generate power than ancient carbon-ridden dinosaur juice being combusted. One reason nuclear power is a great source of energy is that it creates more energy than other sources of power.

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The aggravating global warming has made nuclear energy getting the spotlight from the world. Recently, global warming intensified and gave severe impact to countries. This is possibly due to the combustion of fossil fuels for human activities, producing tons of greenhouse gasses that result in a rise in global temperature. In this century, the global temperature has already risen by 0.74°C , which results in serious climatic change and a rise in sea level. (IPCC, 2007)

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3678 Words | 15 Pages

“Nuclear power will help provide the electricity that our growing economy needs without increasing emissions. This is truly an environmentally responsible source of energy.” Michael Burgess Prior to the introduction of nuclear energy, fossil fuel was thought to be the only available source in producing energy. Although fossil fuel, such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas, contains high energy value, it produces too many harmful byproducts that ultimately pollute our environment. With the rising concerns over global warming as more and more greenhouse gases accumulate in our Earth’s atmosphere, many voice such opinions that new alternative, yet sustainable method must be adopted to produce energy.

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454 Words | 2 Pages

Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactors to release nuclear energy, and this way generate electricity. There is an ongoing debate about nuclear power. Proponents, such as the World Nuclear Association, the IAEA and Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy contend that nuclear power is a safe, sustainable energy source that reduces carbon emissions. Opponents, such as Greenpeace International and NIRS, contend that nuclear power poses many threats to people and the environment. We have to stop being afraid of this kind of energy, because it has less fatalities than other similar types of power generators, also because it is good for the environment and because the other resources are getting small to all the energy that we need now.

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1009 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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944 Words | 4 Pages

It is true that there have been major accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. However those are the only accidents that have occurred in a total of 16,000 cumulative reactor years (“Safety of Nuclear Power Reactors”). The actual amount of accidents that happens are quite low. Moreover, even when those accidents happen, the radiation that you would receive would (normally) be the same or less than what you would receive from natural sources (Lynas). Thus, if those accidents happen, and it is very unlikely that they will, they will not give you any adverse effects when handled

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