The Pros And Cons Of Uranium Nuclear Fission

On August 6, 1945, the United States of America detonated two atomic bombs over Japan in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Along with chernobyl, this is often the first thought when people hear nuclear power. Nuclear power’s fear is justified when many consider the radiation. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “The average annual radiation dose per person in the U.S. is 6.2 millisieverts (620 millirem)”. Fifty two percent comes from background radiation, another forty eight comes from medical radiation; thus, the chances are everyone is getting above average dosage of radiation from just existing. If you were to live within 50 miles of a nuclear power plant you would get a dosage of .01 millirem according to the Nuclear Regulatory

The first and one of the longest lasting being Uranium Nuclear Fission (UNF). UNF is a process where uranium is forced to split, creating heat energy that boils water and turns turbines. The pellets used are stored in a metal rod to prevent the radiation from escaping into the water within the core. It produces 13,968 Megawatt Hours making around 1 gigawatt per year. With fission, there is only one competitor to UNF and that is Thorium Nuclear Fission (TNF). Thorium nuclear fission is much like UNF; the process starts with the splitting of one Thorium atom. This reaction causes other thorium atoms to split, and this creates heat that is used to boil water and turn a turbine. The two main differences between the two, however, are Thorium is much safer to obtain because it is in the top layer of the earth's crust, and it is highly abundant. Another difference is that Thorium is much easier to control. If thorium were to get out of control there is a storage container that the thorium would leak into and stop it from damaging the core or the entire power plant. The energy output of these power plants is around 30 kw, in comparison to UNF 1 megawatt = 1,000 kilowatts. These power plants

Sixty percent of the United State’s energy is produced from coal and oil, making the United States dependent on these resources. Coal and oil come at a cost, according to Canary Media, coal and oil have the highest death rate per terawatt around 24 deaths for coal and 18 for oil. This chart uses air pollution and power plant disasters to calculate the deaths per terawatt. Compared to .03 deaths per terawatt for nuclear the dangers of coal and oil shine. How coal is used to produce energy is the same method as nuclear but less complex. Coal is used to heat a boiler that turns a turbine. The turbine turns the centrifugal force into electricity. Oil uses a combustion engine to produce the centrifugal force. Both of these methods create greenhouse gasses, however from coal power plants ash is emitted. This ash can spread making the local environment a little more polluted, but according to the BBC coal ash can emit thorium, uranium, radon along with lead and mercury. Companies like ESC spectrum corporation say what comes out of smokestacks is just water vapor; however, their company's purpose is to produce plants that work with these combustible materials. Their bias is also not backed by any source making their word not trustworthy. In the long run coal and oil will harm the environment more than it will benefit, and we must