Pros And Cons Of Nuclear Fission

Civilizations require energy to prosper. Humans harnessed energy from the sun to cultivate crops and live in one place, allowing settlements to come to be. Without the need for everybody to hunt and contribute, people could specialize in other skills such as science and art. New technologies were created to work for humans, facilitate living and further reduce the need for human labour. Without the expense of human energy, there is the requirement of other energies to power human creations. Humanity has utilized various energy sources over the course of their existence. Many of these energy sources have assorted shortcomings such as being costly, destructive in some way to the environment or limiting in supply. Now, a relatively new energy source has been discovered that may spearhead the
The chemical reaction that creates nuclear power is known as nuclear fission. When uranium is blasted with fast-moving atoms known as neutrinos, they become unstable and split, releasing more fast-moving neutrinos and energy in the form of radiation (Redd). When nuclear fission occurs, there are byproducts of the fuel known as fission products. Fission products are highly radioactive and will be such for thousands of years. The current method of disposal is storage in water to shield the outside world from the radiation until it decays enough to be stored deep within the Earth. Other methods include the recycling and transmutation of waste into other products and the incineration of waste within the Sun (Touran). Although it may seem that nuclear energy isn’t safe for the environment, it is exponentially cleaner than current fossil fuels. By 2013, it has on average prevented 64 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas and 1.84 million air pollution-related deaths (Hansen and Pushker). With the replacement of fossil fuels as an energy source, this number can only