Nuclear power composes about 19.4% of the power produced in the U.S. Nuclear power actually makes up around 11% of the worlds power. The 11% comes from roughly 450 nuclear power reactors. Some people claim nuclear power is one of the safest ways to create large amounts of energy. However some people would disagree, saying it has to many risk that isn’t worth the power amount. Nuclear power is far to dangerous for us to use as a main power source. There are three big risk created by producing power through nuclear energy. One of the risk is that nuclear power produces large amounts of harmful nuclear waste. The waste that’s created is highly radioactive. Creating power through nuclear fission and fusion is very dangerous. It’s so dangerous because …show more content…
Nuclear reactors are highly dangerous and can cost many lives. Many meltdowns have occurred over the years some are more well known than other. Chernobyl is probably the most well known of all the meltdowns that have occured. It released large amounts of radiation into the air, in the several days after the accident many people died from it. Not only did lots of people die many people developed cancer from it, “an estimated 4,000 cases of terminal cancer resulted” (Rich) . Another well known and more recent meltdown is the Fukushima meltdown in 2011. A terrible earthquake off the coast of Japan lead to a massive tsunami hitting the mainland of Japan. The tsunami hit the Fukushima nuclear plant and caused a major malfunction in the equipment. This meltdown lead to high amounts of radiation in the atmosphere. Meltdowns are one of the biggest fears that can occur in a nuclear power plant, but more problems arise when the discussion of how to expose of nuclear …show more content…
Nuclear power creates a radioactive waste that isn’t as easy as just throwing it away, it has to be disposed of properly and safely. Uranium has a very long half life so it can take millions to billions of years to finally decompose to be handled. Uranium-238 makes up around 98% of the element found on earth. Because it makes up such a large portion it’s the most commonly used for nuclear power. The downside of using 238 rather than other types is it has a half life of close to 4.5 billion years. That means it takes around 4.5 billion years for the radioactive uranium to decompose to safe handling for humans. Uranium-235 makes up about 0.7% of the uranium found on the earth. This is the next most common used uranium and produces more energy to create more power than 238. Because 235 creates more energy than the standard 238 plants try to use it more often. The other good side to using 235 is it’s half life is significantly lower. With the half life of 235 being a little more than 704 million years it’s not only better for energy wise it also helps with the waste problems. The problem with using 235 over 238 is that 238 is way more common than the rare 235. Even though nuclear power can create large amounts of energy, I think there are too many risk to using it as a source of