Pros and Cons of Nuclear Power What’s nuclear power’s biggest advantage? It doesn’t depend on fossil fuels and isn’t affected by fluctuating oil and gas prices. Coal and natural gas power plants emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere‚ which contributes to climate change. With nuclear power plants‚ CO2 emissions are minimal. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute‚ the power produced by the world’s nuclear plants would normally produce 2 billion metric tons of CO2 per year if they depended on
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How Nuclear Power Works The nuclear power plant stands on the border between humanity’s greatest hopes and its deepest fears for the future. On one hand‚ atomic energy offers a clean energy alternative that frees us from the shackles of fossil fuel dependence. On the other‚ it summons images of disaster: quake-ruptured Japanese power plants belching radioactive steam‚ the dead zone surrounding Chernobyl’s concrete sarcophagus. But what happens inside a nuclear power plant to bring such marvel
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Benefits and Risks of Nuclear Power in California By Roger Dunstan Requested by Assembly Member Helen Thomson APRIL 2002 CRB 02-008 Benefits and Risks of Nuclear Power in California By Roger Dunstan ISBN NO. 1-58703-156-6 About the Author Roger Dunstan is an Assistant Director for the California Research Bureau. Acknowledgements Many people provided assistance in a paper such as this‚ but several deserve special mention. Trina Dangberg‚ Sheila Oliver‚ and Judy Hust
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What can make the world go boom‚ nuclear fission? While nuclear fission has been used as a bomb in the events of Hiroshima it has been used now to produce 40 million kilowatts of energy per day for every ton of uranium. Nuclear fission is when a heavy nucleus disintegrates into two nuclei approximately equal sizes. In the beginning of our understanding of nuclear fission‚ fission was first used and discovered by two German physicists Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch‚ in 1939. However‚ they were not
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Nuclear energy – Uses and abuses Nuclear energy is the energy created from the nucleus of atoms. The nuclear power is released in nuclear reactions which can be nuclear fusion and nuclear fission. In nuclear fusion‚ atoms combine together to form a larger atom. This is accompanied by the release or absorption of energy. Large scale fusion processes involve very high temperatures and densities‚ such as the production of energy from the sun and the shine from stars we see in the night sky. On the
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Disadvantages of Nuclear Power http://wanttoknowit.com/disadvantages-of-nuclear-power/ The Basics of Nuclear Power Nuclear power is generated from a metal called uranium. Uranium is mined in places such as Australia‚ Argentina‚ Canada‚ Brazil‚ China‚ France and many other countries. The uranium is used to create controlled nuclear reactions called nuclear fission. Nuclear fission gives off a tremendous amount of heat which is used to heat water to create steam. This steam turns turbines which
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Nuclear Power Plants and Safety Since the humans use energy sources such as wood‚ coal‚ and oil to produce electricity‚ people want to use better energy sources to produce electricity more. By the mid twentieth century‚ scientists found the method of making incredible energy by using uranium as nuclear fission. Today there are about 400 nuclear power plants around the world and more than 100 nuclear power plants in United States (Howstuffworks). In addition‚ nuclear reactors produced a lot of
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To a large extent‚ I agree that the nuclear power is an unsustainable energy resource. Environmentally‚ water for cooling process of the nuclear plants is released into the sea. This causes thermal pollution and reduces water quality. Moreover‚ the radioactive wastes in the nuclear plants will release radioactive substances and contaminate the surrounding areas. Even if the waste is buried underground‚ there may be leakage‚ polluting the underground water and soil. Serious damage is done to the
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Promises and Perils of Nuclear Power Nuclear power refers to the generation of electrical energy by controlled nuclear reactions. These reactions produce heat‚ which in turn creates steam that runs the generators to produce electricity. Approx. 1/8 of the electricity worldwide generated comes from nuclear energy. In this task‚ you will analyze the use of nuclear energy as a resource energy. * Discuss the scientific and technical concepts related to the use of nuclear power as an energy resource
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Peng Wu September24‚ 2010 Is It Time to Revive Nuclear Power? Today‚ we are facing most significant problems in our human ’s history‚ global warming and energy crisis. As a different energy source from the conventional fossil fuel‚ nuclear power can reduce the carbon emissions and support our energy supply. Unfortunately‚ nuclear energy has many problems that can’t be ignored. The issue comes up whether deploy substantive nuclear energy plants is valuable with these unsolved problems. Sequent
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