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Advantage And Disadvantage Of Nuclear Energy Essay

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INTRODUCTION
In the past, energy sustainability is simply defined in terms of the availability of energy sources as opposed to energy consumption. However in today’s context, other aspects such as its impact on the environment, are equally important. So to be totally energy-sustainable would mean to have a continuous supply of clean energy. This is especially important for a small country like Singapore whereby natural resources are scarce and hence not able to meet the expanding energy demand of a rapidly growing population. Furthermore, due to the unfavorable geographical boundaries of Singapore, possibility for wave, geothermal and hydro energy harvesting have been ruled out. As for wind energy, because of the relatively low average wind …show more content…

Considering the limitations that Singapore is currently facing, nuclear power does seem to be the best choice and to justify this, in this essay, I will evaluate the pros and cons of nuclear power by comparing it with some other alternative …show more content…

These wastes are generally classified into 3 types; low-level waste, intermediate-level waste and high-level waste. This classification is based on the on the degree of radioactivity of the waste and the time taken for the radioactivity of the waste to decay which is in turn dependent on the half-life (the time it takes for half of the atoms to decay into another nuclide) of the radionuclide (nuclides that are radioactive). Ultimately, all the radioactive waste will decay to form non-radioactive elements. Different measures are improvised to manage different types of wastes. For the low-level and intermediate-level wastes, they are typically stored on-site by licensees, either until it has decayed away and can be disposed of as ordinary trash, or until the amount stored is large enough for shipment to a low-level waste disposal site in approved containers. On the other hand, high-level wastes (primarily spent uranium fuel), which are hazardous and remain so for thousands of years, are stored in “spent fuel pools” for 10-20 years before being shifted into dry casks. An example would be Plutonium (Pu-239) which has a half-life of about 24000 years. Such measures are however, just temporary solutions with the ultimate goal being permanent disposal through an underground geologic repository, but this in itself poses yet another problem. As high-level wastes

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