Nuclear Fusion Research Paper

NUCLEAR ENERGY:

The term ‘Nuclear energy ‘is marred with scepticism amongst the public. Whenever one proposes to set up a nuclear plant, it is always subjected to criticism by saying that is not environmentally safe. But why should, one look only at the downsides of the proposal, why not look at the upside of the proposal for a change. It is also not entirely fair to blame the public as they are scarred with the instances of the Chernobyl and Fukhishima. But one should also take care that, no harsh or impulsive decisions are made based on these unfortunate instances for e.g. the country of Italy held a referendum in the year 2011 after the Fukhishima disaster, and voted for the banning of nuclear energy. Is banning nuclear power plants the

Researchers working in the Lawrence Livermore national laboratory- a federally funded laboratory in study recently found that, one of their experiments generated more energy than amount used for generating and maintaining the reaction. So there are chances of nuclear fusion being used for producing electricity in the near future. In many ways nuclear fusion is better than nuclear fission as it does not produce large radioactive wastes nor does one need to worry about meltdowns. So in simple words, nuclear fusion is a way of generating limitless power.

The advantages of using Nuclear power plants:

• Free from CO2 :

One of the major advantages of using nuclear power plants is that, it is free from carbon-di-oxide emissions. Most of the conventional methods of generating electricity include the usage of non- renewable resources like coal which generates CO2 upon usage.

• Very efficient source of energy:

The energy produced by the fission of an atom of uranium or plutonium or any other element used in the process of nuclear fission for generating energy, I almost 10 million times the amount of energy produced by combustion of a single atom of carbon in coal. It also doesn’t result in the depletion of fossil fuel reserves. Hence one can obviously see the efficiency and the effectiveness of using nuclear power plants for producing heat and

which depends on natural forces like air, rain etc. If there is any slight change in the weather conditions, it would adversely affect the production of electricity under the conventional sources. This is not a problem under nuclear energy as natural forces play no role in the production of electricity and the plants can be used to generate electricity whenever it is needed.

Disadvantages of using nuclear energy:

• High cost:

Even though the cost of producing or generating electricity might be less, but the process of building a nuclear power plant and installing safety measures easily cost around few hundred million dollars. This high initial cost might restrict the usage of nuclear energy around the world, as many countries mainly the developing ones would not be able to afford to install and use them.

• Chances of environmental pollution:

There is a chance of environmental pollution, whenever there is a meltdown or a nuclear breakdown in the plant and suitable safety measures aren’t adopted, it would lead to leak of radiation which would adversely affect the environment. E.g. The damage caused by the Chernobyl and the Fukhishima