Nuclear energy

Introduction

Nuclear Energy, some people believe nuclear power is the best solution to the world's power demand. Only small amounts of nuclear fuel are needed to release large amounts of energy and there are barely any greenhouse emissions from a nuclear reactor. However, Nuclear energy is controversial due to many things that could go wrong which could cause potentially catastrophic damage. Well, the answer to this issue is by storing it underground in caves and abandoned mines or currently used mines. In this Inquiry, we will go over what it is, the pros and cons, and how we use it.

What is Nuclear Energy

Nuclear power or nuclear energy is when you use nuclear reactions to make electricity. You can achieve nuclear power from nuclear fission or fusion. Well, we have to find out what nuclear fission or fusion is. Fission and fusion are different types of ways to produce nuclear energy, fission is when the nucleus in the atom is split in half which makes nuclei which is just another word for nucleus. Fusion is when you use heat, what this does is when atoms start to combine with each other, the heat starts to make a reaction and all the fused atoms split away to make energy.

Why does this matter, because nuclear energy is actually found in atoms but some atoms are radioactive. Nuclear energy also produces many radioactive products such as iodine, krypton, and other dangerous elements.

What caused us to consider nuclear energy as a good energy source?

Nuclear energy began in 1930’s when physicist Enrico Fermi showed that neutrons were able to split atoms and he led a team of scientists in the 1940's that achieved the first nuclear chain reaction. After that, they showed in the 1950's that nuclear energy could produce electricity for commercial use, the first commercial electricity generating plant was located in Shippingport, Pennsylvania. It was fully finished in 1957. At the time, it promised to help the world get back up and rise again after the horrors of WW2 and also the use of atomic bombs. People thought that nuclear energy would produce free electricity around the globe, they thought this could make nuclear-powered cars, planes, and even houses, and here's when the problem comes in, Nuclear power is expensive and quite complicated to build and set up.

Nuclear energy started to become more popular, private companies thought it was the best to stay stick with gas, coal, and oil because they thought that the idea of nuclear energy was too risky and people didn’t listen, all they care about is the idea of free electricity and the prospect of being independent of oil and gas imports and in some cases and a desire to possess nuclear bombs. In the 1970s, nuclear energy’s demand rose because there was a war in the middle east that made the oil and gas prices skyrocket. investment into nuclear energy picked up at a fast rate and people started developing ideas for what they can do with nuclear energy. Hyman G. Rickover, who was an admiral for the US Navy, made nuclear-powered submarines; he did this because they wouldn’t need fuel or to use oxygen for combustion. Currently, most reactors were built between 1970 to 1985. Now, there are currently over 450 reactors and most are built in countries that are starting to start to grow.

Are there any disadvantages to using Nuclear energy?

There are many advantages to using nuclear energy but there are also its downsides. When nuclear energy made a violent entrance onto the world stage after 2 large Japanese cities were completely destroyed by just 2 bombs but after that, nuclear technology started to become a means of producing electricity but it has always been connected with nuclear weapons. In 40 years, 5 countries have made weapons thanks to the use of nuclear technology. There is fear that nuclear reactor meltdowns like Chernoybl, Chernoybl is a power plant in ukraine near the city of Pripyat , one of the reactors had a meltdown and exploded into flames and it is known as one of the worst nuclear disasters in history. Compared with old nuclear reactors, new ones are quite expensive to build, and also they take a long time to build because of policy changes as well as increased regulatory constraints but that all depends on how competitive the country is.

People say that nuclear energy is a dangerous relic of the past and that we should just let go and focus on renewables. Nuclear fuel is not only radioactive, it is also poisonous with bad chemicals such as plutonium but over time, it loses its harmfulness slowly after 10’s thousands of years. Plutonium though, can be recycled or re-processed and used for only 2 things, use it as new fuel or nuclear weapons but hardly any of it is used as new fuel because we don't have the right reactors for that.

The biggest problem of them all is nuclear waste, this is because there is nowhere to put it, people first thought it was a great idea to dump it into the ocean but that has been banned thankfully but we have nowhere to put it still. 13 countries between 1946 and 1993 were dumping their nuclear waste into oceans. We are currently trying to find where we can dump our nuclear waste. We have thought of burying 1000 metres underground and even sending all of it to space. Lastly, Nuclear power plants are a big target for terrorists because nuclear power plant explosion could cause a great catastrophe and nuclear energy can be turned into nuclear weapons if fallen into the wrong hands.

What is the future of nuclear energy?

Obviously, as the time goes by, nuclear energy is going to increase its energy production and because of this, Nuclear power is going to be significant in the future in 2050, Most nuclear reactors will produce over 715 Gigawatts 2050 and 100 gigawatts of power in 75 million houses and business, it's estimated that is over 525 million. Some of the biggest countries in the world will have the most reactors such as China. They are going to increase their use of nuclear energy instead of fossil fuels due to China's massive smog problem and having to wear masks nearly every day in big cities. Other countries apart from China are going to increase their production of nuclear power and one of the best performers in France with ¾ of which electricity comes just from nuclear power. Renewables could account for almost 70% of the world's energy. We could also make nuclear fuel completely if we change uranium mined ore to seawater but if we completely switch to nuclear power overnight, it wouldn’t last us even a century.

Conclusion

To sum up everything in this report so far, What should be done to minimise the negative effects of nuclear energy? Well, the worst thing about nuclear energy is the waste it produces so the most effective way to get rid of nuclear waste is by storing it underground in abandoned cave systems and mines and basically neutral in all the categories, It's easier to build than the rest, it's not affected by the cost, it's away from people and its sustainable. Like the others, Blasting it into space, it's away from people, is highly expensive and hard to do, and digging it into the centre of the earth is also quite expensive and is hard to do because if you were to do so, you would need to have heat protection materials to dig it that deep put if it reaches to the core of the earth, the nuclear waste could have a reaction with the waste and explode up to the surface and I don’t what happens from there, this why Storing underground is the best solution