ipl-logo

The Pros And Cons Of Nuclear Power Plants

1076 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Controversy over nuclear power

II) Ethical Issues

Like I stated earlier, “In today’s times anything with the word nuclear has become a huge ethical and political debate.” People are so scared of anything radioactive, and you can’t blame them. Many deaths were cause by them in the past, and most likely more deaths are going to happen in the future with nuclear radiation being the cause. Not only is the radiation harming people, it is also harming are environments as well. On top of all that, nuclear power plants are just cutting into the wealth of some countries due to the fact that they are ridiculously expensive to build and also expensive to run.

A. Economy

Now a day’s countries are beginning to use nuclear power plants for an efficient source of electrical energy, …show more content…

3 Average cost of electricity per Kilowatt hour

It’s true nuclear power plants are expensive to build, but have you ever thought of how much fuel it might cost to run the plant and how much that fuel costs. Power plants of this type use Uranium, a very expensive silvery metal. A non-renewable resource, the average cost to buy 1 kg of uranium for fuel is $2,000. You can compare that to rocket fuel, which when all the prices for each element are added up, 1 kg of the fuel is about $4.00. That’s a huge difference. On average, power plants use about 4,500 to 6,500 uranium rods every five to six years. Each Uranium rod is 20 kg so the average cost for fuel is:
(5500 * 20) / 5.5 ≈ $20,000 a year (Based on the average of both number of rods and years total). A good example to show for what might happen to countries in the future is the debt Canada is currently in because of their CANDU nuclear reactors. Canada has surpassed 10 billion dollars and is still growing with them using these reactors. Now about 1/3 of their reactors are closed down and are not making any income. Not a very profitable investment if you ask me. Another thing we have to be cautious about are the high cost repairs that countries have to spend on power plants and how much it costs for waste treatment. Since 1983 over $42 billion has been used just for treating the radioactive waste to make sure it’s clean to dispose of. That a lot of money put in just for …show more content…

Right now there are a few ways to store the waste, but the most common is to load the waste into metal barrels and put them into storage. The problem is that the waste that comes form the power plants stay radioactive for thousands of years, so until somebody finds a more efficient way to deal with all the waste then in will just keep building up. A method that has been used in the past to get rid of the unwanted radioactive waste is to dump it all into the oceans. A total of thirteen countries used this process to get rid of the waste. Thankfully in is not illegal to dump in the ocean, but did we stop it

Show More
Related
939 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More
695 Words | 3 Pages

However, there are few opposition opinions. “Rebuttal”: a) Environmental Impact - The process of mining and refining uranium hasn’t been a clean process. b) Nuclear Accidents - The Chernobyl accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine was the worst nuclear accident in the history. c) High Cost - At present, the nuclear business let waste cool for a considerable length of time before blending it with glass and putting away it in enormous cooled, solid structures.

Read More
824 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
607 Words | 3 Pages

Nuclear Energy IS Australia’s Future Introduction: I wholeheartedly believe that Nuclear Energy will play an inevitably central role as a reliable energy source in Australia’s future. Australia must invest in Nuclear energy because coal and oil are becoming scarce, requires less fuel and is eco-friendly. Australia is blessed with the world’s largest known uranium resources (a bountiful 38% according to Professor Mary O’Kane NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer). ANSTO (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) reports: ‘No country of Australia’s economic size or larger is without nuclear power’.

Read More
1117 Words | 5 Pages

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

Read More
1230 Words | 5 Pages

However, there are a number of controversies over the use of nuclear energy with some supporting its use while others opposing the use of nuclear energy. Despite the controversy on whether to use nuclear energy as an alternative, nuclear power has proved to be safe, reliable, clean, and inexpensive. Therefore, Nuclear energy should replace other forms of power around the globe because it is more environmentally friendly, cost effective, and safe for use and to exist with human beings compared to other forms of energy being used today. One of the main benefits of nuclear energy over other forms of energy is that it is a clean way to produce energy.

Read More
491 Words | 2 Pages

I am writing this report to advise the Far North Distrcit Council on the use of nuclear reactors as a power source. While New Zealand has a history of being anti-nuclear there are many benefits of having a nuclear power station. I will discuss the pros and cons of building a reactor and how they work. There are two types of nuclear reactors these are called fission and fusion. A fusion reaction takes place when two lighter atomic nuclei usually deuterium and tritium or helium are bonded into a heavier element and give off energy this is usually done by forcing them to collide at very high speeds in order to over come the force produced by coulombic repulsion.

Read More
175 Words | 1 Pages

Nuclear power plants provide cheap, clean, and efficient energy and new technology might soon overcome the current drawbacks. Disasters like the ones at Chernobyl and Fukushima have long given nuclear energy an ill-deserved reputation. It produces no greenhouse gases and only trace amounts of radiation at a comparable price to coal power. However, the large initial cost and the potential for meltdowns has prevented nuclear energy from growing to supply a significant portion of the world’s electricity. Safety features on current nuclear reactors make a nuclear disaster highly unlikely, but technological advances could soon negate those risks completely.

Read More
1311 Words | 6 Pages

The increasing concern of global warming is pushing governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Alberta government recently put into effect a carbon tax to combat increasing emissions. They also plan on phasing out coal-fired electricity generation by 2030 with renewable resources. Should the Alberta government look to nuclear fission to replace the coal plants they are shutting down? What is the cost of building a new plant and how many do we need?

Read More
1174 Words | 5 Pages

It also have an environmental impact but less than any other energy resources used for electricity generation. From the current perspective, nuclear power supplies 11 % of the world's energy demand, however it will be going to increase due to the industrialisation, modern lifestyle and increasing of the population (“World energy”, 2014). Additionally, the cost of production of electricity from nuclear power plant is very much less than those conventional style coal fire plant. As coal facing carbon tax and fuel price are rising, Uranium looks promisingly attractive to fulfil the growing energy demand (“Energy for the World - Why Uranium”, 2012).Most countries produced nuclear power from electricity, which is cheap than others. And used for existing plants, and to extend the life of current plants.

Read More
363 Words | 2 Pages

Nuclear Power is highly expensive source of energy. The EPL group, of Juno Beach, Florida estimates “ that two new reactors planned for southeast Florida would cost between 6 billion and 9 billion each.” This is extremely expensive compared to solar and

Read More
665 Words | 3 Pages

All of the options for handling nuclear waste have potentially large environmental and health impacts. Waste disposal sites have the potential to contaminate the environment for hundreds of thousands of years. The impacts of a chosen method of waste management should be highly

Read More
3678 Words | 15 Pages

Nuclear energy may be the solution that eliminates our concern for energy production in the future, but it still remains a huge issue for the environment. Despite its wide use in many developed countries, nuclear energy poses many threats to both the

Read More
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.

Read More
944 Words | 4 Pages

The potential is limitless, and it should be realized as they have low greenhouse gas emissions, are efficient, powerful, cheap and reliable. Positives outweigh the negatives, and we should keep on using nuclear energy. Firstly, nuclear power generation has low greenhouse gas emissions, which make it good for the environment. The actual fission

Read More

More about The Pros And Cons Of Nuclear Power Plants

Related Topics

Open Document