Mckenzie 1 On July 16th 1945, scientists from all around the world gathered to witness the first nuclear explosion. The detonation of the bomb was code named “Trinity”, and took place in a secluded part of the New Mexico desert . This nuclear bomb ushered the world into what people now know as the “nuclear age”. From this new age, stemmed a whole new source of power that is able to power cities, and is 8,000 times more effective at creating power than burning fossil fuels with less resources. However, with this great new power, the governments and people in charge around the world have a great amount of responsibility on their hands. Ultimately, this responsibility has been taken advantage of in the past, and proves to be a negative influence …show more content…
Nuclear plants are often considered to be a safe source of energy, since they are placed so close to dense areas of population such as the nuclear power station in Pickering Ontario, Canada, which is next to the largest city in Canada, Toronto. Furthermore, if a plant such as this was to experience a meltdown on the scale of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine during 1986 , the casualties would be catastrophic. The radioactive toxins released from Chernobyl are believed to be responsible for 7,000 cases of thyroid cancer of the people within the neighboring city of Pripyat. These toxins also took the lives of 28 workers who were highly exposed to the radiation within the plant. The plant experienced the meltdown due to human error, and neglect during safety inspections. It will be approximately 320 years until the city of Pripyat will be habitable once again. A similar incident occurred more recently in Japan on March 11th, 2011. On this day, a 9.0 earthquake shook the northern parts of Japan, including the Fukushima nuclear plant, which had its power supply shut down. This resulted in the leakage of 300 tons of radioactive water slowly leaking into