Balanced Treatment of the Pros and Cons of Nuclear Energy

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The balanced treatment of the pros and cons of nuclear energy requires consideration of environmental, economical, social and political implications of using the atomic energy.

The main arguments for using nuclear power instead of its alternatives include the reduction of air pollution, economy of non-renewable fossil fuels and independence of the state economy from foreign resources. First of all, the process of producing nuclear power does not cause the emission of air pollution. Taking into account the current situation with the global warming and greenhouse-gases, the opportunities of reducing the emission is recognized as a significant advantage of nuclear power by most environmentalists.

James Lovelock, an outstanding researcher working in this domain noted that if the humanity had started using nuclear power earlier, the situation with global warming could be much better: “If we had nuclear power we wouldn’t be in this mess now” (Easton 223). The economy of non-renewable fossil fuels is another significant advantage of nuclear energy which allows not only using the alternative sources, but also treating the traditional resources much more effectively and reasonably.

“Non-hydrocarbon-based energy sources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, and nuclear power, produce electricity, not liquid fuels, so their widespread use in transportation is at best decades away” (Hirsch, Bezdek and Wendling. “Peaking Oil Production: Sooner Rather than Later?”). Taking into account the current situation with the non-renewable natural resources, the governments offer increasing prices on them or enacting a carbon tax which would make nuclear power competitive as compared to wind or solar energy.

By the way, even the spent fuel from the nuclear power plants still contains useful components and allows even opening new plants which would only recycle the waste. “New nuclear power plants represent the lowest cost power source” (Evans “Nuclear Power: Back in the Game”).

Using the available resources instead of traditional fuels, nuclear power allows countries which lack natural resources to reduce their dependence on foreign fuels and foster their independence. Thus, the use of nuclear power presupposes a number of positive short-term and log-term consequences for the economy of the country and the environment of the planet.

Along with all the advantages of using nuclear energy, it may have negative implications which are mostly associated with improper construction of plants, including the hazards of radioactive pollution, for example, and using the atomic power for political purposes such as making the plants attractive targets for terrorists and using nuclear power as weapon.

“The worst incident in the history, Chernobyl killed just 56 people and made 20 square miles of land uninhabitable… There are suggestions that hundreds or thousands more may die because of long-term effects” (Easton 226).

Though modern technologies allow making nuclear power plants safe, the risks of unintended release of radioactive materials still is rather high. Another burning problem is handling radioactive waste. Apart from technical side of the issue, nuclear power can be used for the wrong purposes. For example, as the most important strategic objects related to high levels of radioactive pollution, nuclear power plants are attractive targets for terrorists.

Another hazard is using atomic energy for creating weapon for the purpose of strengthening the country’s position on the world political arena. The experience of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has demonstrated how destroying the nuclear energy may be. Thus, the negative implications of nuclear power are predetermined with the technical difficulties of preventing the radioactive pollutions and ethical considerations of using the atomic energy for civilian purposes only.

In general, it can be concluded that nuclear power may have both positive and negative implications. Taking into account all the advantages of using nuclear energy for environment and economy, global measures need to be imposed for improving the construction of plants and preventing using nuclear power as weapon.

Works Cited

Hirsch, Robert, Roger Bezdek and Robert Wendling. “Peaking Oil Production: Sooner Rather than Later? Oil Production Will Begin to

Decline in the Near Future. Beginning to Prepare Now Will Soften the Blow to the Economy”. Issues in Science and Technology 22 March 2005. Web.

Easton, Thomas. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Environmental Issues. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.

Evans, Robert. “Nuclear Power: Back in the Game”. Power Engineering 1^st Oct. 2005. Web.

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Balanced Treatment of the Pros and Cons of Nuclear Energy

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