Nuclear Energy is The Future Essay Example

The dilemma of global warming has been presented to everyone, but the danger of it is significantly more threatening than people realize. The only way to solve the issue is with a huge amount of green energy to replace fossil fuels. Beyond just global warming, the world is becoming very reliant on electricity. As the population and overall energy use increases, there has to be an effective way to keep up with it. Solar panels and wind turbines can only bring us so far using green sources, and nuclear energy is the answer. Nuclear energy is the most efficient, reliable, and has the smallest land footprint of all green energies. Nuclear energy has a substantial foundation already built and a future withholding vast possibilities for expansion. Nuclear is already the most efficient, but the plants will only get smaller, faster, and safer. Nuclear energy will be the energy of the future and the liberator of the world from the seemingly inescapable truth of global warming. 

To begin understanding why it is so efficient, you must understand how it works. Nuclear reactions are the process of splitting or fusing together atoms. The process releases a tremendous amount of heat and energy which is used to heat water. This creates steam and heat rises and expands, thus spinning a turbine, and ultimately generating energy (Eiden 2). This is the most common and highly advanced process of Fission, or the splitting of atoms. Going deeper in the reaction, an atomic particle known as a neutron is shot at a uranium atom, and this unbalances the atom making it split. This releases more neutrons that collide with other atoms of uranium to create a chain reaction (Eiden 1). This is controlled in a power plant to regulate the amount of energy produced and keep the plant itself, and the surrounding communities safe. Control rods made of a special material known as cadmium can be lowered into the reaction to absorb some or all of the neutrons, slowing or stopping the reaction (Eiden 1). This process is well researched and it has been found to only work efficiently with uranium. There is plenty of uranium left to use but there may be a better way to utilize nuclear energy, by using atom fusion. Fusion is simply just the combining of atoms. This releases significantly more energy and heat and works with many different elements. It is mostly undiscovered but has the potential to take over the nuclear industry and the power industry as a whole. This is the key to conquering global warming, with a revolutionary amount of fossil fuels converted to green energy. 

As humans, our science can only advance so fast and Fusion is a gigantic step into the future. Currently the power industry is changing and advancing, to make fission plants substantially smaller. They are known as mini reactors. These are about the size of a school bus and are able to power an entire town. Transferring an entire town into a green energy source is a big deal. These reactors are designed to be drastically cheaper and much safer. This makes them easily and quickly replicated as well as taking the already small footprint of nuclear reactors to a new level. 1 square mile was the average nuclear plant footprint and the mini reactor was able to cut that down to the size of a bus (Office of Nuclear Energy).

Another one of the great pros of Nuclear energy is it being very dense and very efficient. One thumb-sized pellet of uranium provides the same amount of energy as 481,000L of natural gas, 1 Ton of coal, or 454L of oil (Nuclear Now Alliance). As of right now, there is enough uranium to keep all the current plants running for 230 years at the current rate (NEI). That’s just the deposits found and the deposits just on this planet. In total only about a football field sized amount of uranium [10 meters high] has been consumed (NEI). 

Along the topic of efficiency is because of its reliability. Nuclear plants never have to shut down because of extreme weather conditions. No weather such as storms, droughts, or frigid temperatures cause it to shut down (NEI). Clean energy sources like solar panels, wind turbines, and hydro power are reliant on a specific weather to produce enough power while still being less effective. Nuclear proves its efficiency even further by being able to brave the worst conditions and keep working.

While speaking about nuclear efficiency, you can not leave out the price effectiveness of it. Although it seems expensive, the amount of energy it produces is incredible compared to how much it costs. This saves the normal civilian tax money, and energy companies as well. Nuclear currently saves the average American 6% on their electric bills (NEI). Nuclear is the cheapest it has ever been and with new discoveries it will only get cheaper (Hill 1). Nuclear energy currently adds 60 billion dollars to the US GDP (NEI). This statistic is used to measure the size of a country’s economy and exemplifies how great nuclear power is for the overall economy. Capitalizing on the booming economic boost and how ready the nuclear industry is to rapidly grow is a clear decision.

The main stigma against nuclear energy is A common perception of nuclear plants and nuclear energy is that it is very dangerous and responsible for many accidents. The public view of it is based on the few nuclear “disasters” that have happened. However, nuclear is responsible for less deaths than wind turbines, coal, and natural gas per year. Once in a while you will see a headline, “Nuclear plant accident” but the millions of people affected by black lung and other respiratory diseases and issues due to coal are never seen. These few nuclear meltdowns actually teach us more than it costs us. Scientists and engineers use the information to improve their designs and advance the technology, to make it safer. Another misconception is that a nuclear plant can explode like a bomb. This is a ridiculous idea and is impossible, in a bomb the uranium atoms are lined up in such a way that the chain reaction will happen instantly releasing all the energy at once. The control rods prevent this from ever happening and even without them the uranium is not yet enriched and is not pure enough to explode like a bomb.

The final and most important fact of nuclear energy, is that it is a clean energy source. The world needs a clean alternative, and nuclear energy is the answer. It produces no greenhouse gases and all the “dangerous” nuclear reactions are contained inside a concrete dome. You can think of nuclear energy like a hydro dam, except instead of water spinning the turbines, it is steam created in a chemical reaction. The little waste that is produced is stored in a dedicated facility until a better way of disposal is discovered. This is a problem that must be faced down the road, the glaring effects of the greenhouse effect are the number one priority.

In conclusion, the pros of nuclear heavily outweigh the cons. The world is desperate for a clean energy source, and soon enough we will need a great deal more power. Global warming is a crisis, and nuclear power might be the only clean energy source that can generate such a large amount of power. It is a green, clean, efficient and powerful energy source that is misconceived by society to be this terrible thing. Nuclear power is not dangerous, it is revolutionary. Implementing more resources to advance studies and make nuclear power something bigger is what the world needs.