FREE ESSAY ON NUCLEAR POWER

NUCLEAR POWER

The world's natural resources are being consumed at 
an alarming rate. As these resources diminish , people will 
be seeking alternative sources by which to generate 
electricity for heat and light . The only practical short 
term solution for the energy-crisis is nuclear power. 
Nuclear power, however is not as safe as burning coal, gas 
or oil in a factory it is in fact , much more dangerous, 
There are dangers associated with a nuclear power plant 
which far out weigh the benefits to society as a whole and 
in part to the community living and working around the 
power plant . About 20 percent of our nation's total 
electrical consumption per year is supplied by nuclear power 
from the 100 or so nuclear power plants throughout the 
country . Even though atomic power has been in use for over 
50 years it was primarily a tool of war and destruction when 
the war ended need for atomic bombs diminished . The 
scientists who created the weapons were out of jobs . They 
then turned this destructive power into huge plants 
generating clean and cheap  electricity for the country . 
It was called progress. Progress also brought with it 
sickness , mutations , cancer and eventually death to those 
exposed to high levels of radiation . Government declared 
that nuclear power is safe and efficient . Also have big 
Oil corporations who have a lot of money invested in nuclear 
power and want to see as many plants as possible put into 
and kept in operation . The truth is that accidents do 
happen at nuclear power plants and at other facilities all 
the time . An accident at a nuclear power plant has the 
potential to be much more devastating than an accident at a 
coal or gas plant because of the radiation that could be 
released . An example of this is Three Mile Island in 
Pennsylvania where there was a partial core meltdown in 
march of 1979 and an acceptable amount of radiation 
escaped into the atmosphere . However no amount of 
radiation is acceptable if released as a result of an
accident at a nuclear power plant . 
Is Nuclear Power necessary ?
Today many Americans adopt lifestyles that are based on 
energy in-efficient devices . These include large 
automobiles and electric appliances that require 
electricity from energy-intense industrial processes . The 
public is doing all it can to force nuclear power plants 
into production by wasting electricity and the resources 
which are used to produce it ( coal , oil , gas) and by 
failing to recycle . Nuclear power has been promoted 
world-wide as economically advantageous and necessary to 
replace fossil fuels as the means of energy production in 
the 21st century . However this is untrue . There are many 
other economically viable and environmentally safe methods 
of producing energy .These include solar power , 
hydroelectric power and wind power . Today one fifth of the 
world's total energy production either comes from either 
wind ,water or solar power . It is estimated that by the 
year 2000 forty percent of the world's energy production 
will be from sources other than fossil fuels or nuclear 
power .It is estimated that to meet , via nuclear power a 
quarter of the projected U.S. primary power demand in the 
year 2000 that the US would have to order a new nuclear 
power plant to be built every five days to compensate for 
the irradication of the coal , oil and gas powered plants . 
On the other hand if all U. S. nuclear power plants were 
shut down now , it would not make any difference at all . 
The existing electrical backup systems have reserves of 
power that can more than make up for the loss of the nuclear 
power plants . The nuclear power plants that are in use 
today are no more than large plants serving no purpose at 
all and endangering many peoples lives .
Is Nuclear Power worth the risks ?
With any large energy producing facility there are 
risks . The risks posed by a nuclear power plant however , 
are far greater than those posed by any other . Meltdowns, 
cancer , radiation , mutations and eventually death are all 
possible end results of the building of a nuclear power 
plant . Meltdown or the explosion of the main reactor 
itself can release tons of radioactive particles into the 
atmosphere . The meltdown of a nuclear power plant would 
release a thousand times more radioactivity into the
atmosphere than the bombs dropped on both Hiroshima and 
Nagasaki . Another possibility is China Syndrome  , where 
the core of the reactor melts into the earth and reaches the 
water table of the area and contaminates it . Although 
Nuclear power plants do not give off any form of combustion 
, they do release minute traces of radioactive particles 
which contaminate the soil , water and air . They also 
release super heated water into lakes and rivers from the 
cooling of the reactor . This heats the water , killing fish 
and other types of marine life . The average or annual 
release of radioactive particles into the atmosphere shorten 
our life span by 37 minutes . This also raises the 
background level of radiation by 3% thus adding an extra 
7000 cancer deaths per year . The cases of cancer deaths go 
up in areas around nuclear power plants . Children with 
asthma living in the vicinity of a nuclear power plant are 
50 times more likely to die of cancer than a healthy child 
living in the same area . Studies done by the EPA and NRC 
reveal that workers at nuclear power plants are more likely 
to die from cancer due to the proximity of radioactive 
elements . Naturally occurring radiation in the environment 
is greater than the trace amounts given off by nuclear power 
plants . However people would rather not take the risk of 
being exposed to unnecessary amounts of radiation by living 
near a nuclear power plant . A recent EPA study on the worst 
case scenario of a nuclear accident concluded that if a 
nuclear reactor 1/5 the size of the Chernobyl plant in the
former Soviet Union had a meltdown in a state the size of 
Pennsylvania it would kill 45,000 people , contaminate 70% 
of the state , and cause seventeen million dollars worth 
of damage and if you multiply that by five it would kill 
225,000 and cause eighty five million dollars worth of 
damage and contaminate five times the amount of land . 
Have there ever been any Nuclear accidents in the United 
States ?
Accidents involving US nuclear power plants are very 
rare . This does not mean that they do not occur. In the 
early 1980's there was a fire at Yankee Atomic , a nuclear 
power plant in Massachusetts , destroying over 3 million 
dollars worth of electrical wiring in the reactor . it was 
caused by some workmen who were using matches to find a leak 
in the ventilation system of the reactor . The damage to 
the reactor was not serious but it was shut down for two 
weeks for repairs . If the situation was not brought under 
control the fire could have spread and caused a meltdown or 
serious leak . The most serious nuclear accident in the US 
was at three Mile Island , Pennsylvania in 1979 when a 
coolant pipe was accidentally blocked due to cleaning and 
repairs the blockage allowed no water to reach the reactor 
core to cool it down and the core ruptured and leaked 
radioactive particles into the atmosphere . The core itself 
came close to meltdown and if this had happened much of 
Pennsylvania , New York and New Jersey would have been 
contaminated by the radioactive fallout . Although today's 
nuclear power plants are relatively safe the problem of 
accidents increases with every new plant that is built . 
With each new plant built new of problems occur since this 
is a relatively young technology with people who are being 
trained on the job . 
Is Radioactivity dangerous?
Radioactivity cannot be seen , felt , tasted or smelt . 
It is an  invisible poison  that is released and produced 
by the plants . The average nuclear power plant contains 
more than 200,000 to 300,000 times the radioactive materials 
that are in standard nuclear warheads . Radioactivity 
destroys life , especially human life . A person exposed to 
a high level of radiation will die within 48 hours of 
exposure either due to infectious diseases caused by the 
destruction of the body's immune system from the radiation 
or by massive tissue bleeding . Humans above all other 
species are the most susceptible to radiation . Cockroaches 
and other types of insects can withstand 200 times more 
radiation exposure than humans before cancer or death occur 
, Radiation alters the electrical charge of the body's cells 
and allows cancer to form in the cells . Not all exposures 
to radiation cause cancer . The radiation may cause an 
incubation period of up to 40 years before full-blown cancer 
is diagnosed in the patient . By this time it is impossible 
to discover if it is cancer caused by radiation or not . 
Different doses of radiation will cause different problems . 
A dose of 2000 - 3000 REMs ( Roentgen Equivalent Man ) will 
cause brain tissue to swell , hemorrhage and will cause 
death . Fivehundred REMs will stop the cells from dividing , 
will cause hair to fall out , and will cause ulcers to form 
on the skin . It also destroys the white blood cells and 
platelets that help to fight off disease and stop bleeding 
in the body . Besides cancer radiation causes genetic 
defects and mutations in humans and other animals . These 
defects may lie dormant in one generation and reappear in 
the next . This create serious problems in the gene pool of 
the society by creating mutations and deformities 
.Recessive mutations may also occur these are lack of vigor 
and energy , susceptibility to disease , and mental 
deficiency in humans . It is estimated that for every one 
visible genetic mutation or defect there are 10,000 
non-visible recessive mutations that contaminate the gene 
pool of society . This could lead to more mutations and 
unnecessary deaths because the human body of a child whose 
mother was exposed to radiation and passed on deformed genes 
to her baby may not be able to fight off common sicknesses 
and die due to the radiation exposure .  Radiation may be 
one of the principal ecological agents responsible for 
human suffering and disease  . This quote came from a 
congressional hearing on the safety of nuclear power in the 
early 70's where it was declared that radiation was and is 
dangerous to human beings and other species of animals and 
that nuclear power plants are highly dangerous and 
inefficient for their purposes . 
Why not Solar power or other alternatives ?
The amount of energy that reaches the earth from the 
sun on any given day is far greater than that consumed by 
Americans in any given year . To harness this and turn it 
into something that is much needed and very useful would be 
a great alternative to nuclear power plants . Having no 
moving parts , producing no pollution , consuming no 
fuel , and operating at environmental temperatures , solar 
collectors are very clean and efficient . They produce a 
practically free form of electricity and would provide 
electricity at a very low price . Nuclear power plants 
average a build time of 10 years and cost millions of 
dollars . This means that vast implementation of nuclear 
reactors in the near future is virtually impossible and 
unrealistic . Solar power receptors , on the other 
hand cost a fraction of the price and take less time to 
manufacture than nuclear plants . Although nuclear power has 
its drawbacks and limitations , still seems to be the 
primary choice for energy production today due to the rise 
in population and to general energy consumption around the 
world as well as to the lack of technology in the other 
fields of energy production . It is a wonder why solar power 
has not been mass implemented already to power our country 
and the world .The materials used to build solar collectors 
( silicon , plastics) are readily available . Silicon makes 
up the second most abundant element in the earth's crust . 
These panels could be placed virtually anywhere on the 
roofs of houses and buildings or into the sides of the 
buildings themselves . Solar power could be a reality today 
. However , oil companies such as Exxon who are the leading 
researchers in nuclear and solar technology , would rather 
have the nuclear because it would produce more money than 
the solar . Solar power is a cheaper source of electricity 
because you cannot turn off the sun . The same oil 
monopolies buy out smaller companies which are developing 
feasible solar power plants to keep them from being 
implemented and to maintain the hold on the fossil fuel 
market . Solar energy and thermonuclear fusion are great 
alternatives to the nuclear reactor but these will not be 
mass implemented until well into the next century . That 
does not solve the problem for today . To keep the number 
of nuclear power plants as low as possible people need to 
conserve , energy change lifestyles and recycle more of 
there wastes . We need to be less dependent on electricity 
and electrical products . Conservation must be implemented 
by government policies and guide lines . To have any affect 
at all on the amount of electricity that is consumed .  
Anything that slows down the development of solar energy, 
the one cheap limitless source of energy that cannot be shut 
down by war or embargo, is undermining the national security 
of the United States  .
Nuclear power has been a constant in all of our lives 
due to the many problems it has and to the many accidents 
that occur . Nuclear power is a dangerous and deadly tool 
that should not be taken lightly . Sadly this is exactly 
what has happened in regards to the accidents at Three Mile 
Island and again at the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant in the 
former Soviet Union . In both cases inexperience and 
ignorance played major roles in the accidents . Hopefully 
this may never happen again and nuclear power will be phased 
out to the safer fusion reactor and the very appealing solar 
power generator.