- Published: September 9, 2022
- Updated: September 9, 2022
- University / College: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Language: English
- Downloads: 30
Nuclear power is seen as a potential source of energy to many countries. One of the advantages is that it has less carbon dioxide in the production process. This is an improvement to the environment and has better conservation to the environment. This is an important aspect in energy production. Another advantage is that it has lower costs of operations. This is coupled with the fact that there is large capacity and potential to generate large power that will be used for industrial purposes. There are also the high possibilities of recycling power waste in this power source. There is support of nuclear energy by the Nuclear Energy Institute. The effort of this institute is to ensure there is acceptance of the energy source to the public (Armaroli, & Balzani, 2011).
There are many disadvantages of nuclear power. One disadvantage is that there are high costs of constructing the plants because the systems are complicated. This also goes with the fact that it has high subsidies and high guarantees of loan. There are also high risks of accidents. There is the issue of the Three Mile Island accident which adds to the risks that this power source pose to the users. The Three Mile Island occurred when there was partial meltdown of the nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. This is one of the worst accidents that occurred regarding nuclear plants. Another disadvantage is that it takes a long time to construct the plants. In addition, it poses a threat of terrorism to the country hosting the plant (Kortelainen et al., 2012).
Comparing the two perspectives of nuclear power, it has more disadvantages and should not be pursued. The high costs of production and the subsidies could be spent on other alternatives like renewable energy alternatives.
References
Armaroli, N., & Balzani, V. (2011). Energy for a sustainable world. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim.
Kortelainen, M., McDonnell, J., Nazarewicz, W., Reinhard, P. G., Sarich, J., Schunck, N., & Wild, S. M. (2012). Nuclear energy density optimization: Large deformations. Physical Review C, 85(2), 024304.
