Overview
A 9.0 magnitude earthquake began on March 11th, 2011 at 2:46 PM and lasted 3 minutes (World Nuclear Association, 2016). The earthquake was centered 130 km off the shore of Sendai Myagi on the east coast of Honshu Island. Consequentially, the island to move four meters to the east and surrounding coastlines were subsided by up to one meter. The earthquake also created a tsunami reaching as high as 40 meters. At the time of the earthquake, there were 11 nuclear reactors operating in the region. When the earthquake struck, all 11 shut down automatically and available power was used to run the cooling pumps at most of the units which achieved cold shutdown in a few days. Unfortunately, a major accident happened at Tepco’s Fukushima Daiichi …show more content…
Although there is a large cost associated with building a new nuclear power plant, the rest of the energy creation process is relatively affordable. Once the nuclear power plant gets going and is able to pay off the first costs, it becomes cheaper to create energy than other forms of fossil fuels.
The power that is generated by nuclear power is stable enough that it can be used with virtually any other source of power, including renewable sources of power (Lombardo, 2015). “Because of this stability, the demands of the nuclear power plant can be adjusted according to the power that is supplied from other sources.” Consequentially, nuclear power is reliable and flexible to the needs of the power company and society as a whole.
Additionally, there is relatively little pollution to the atmosphere due to the way energy is created at a nuclear power plant (Lombardo, 2015). Since the way nuclear power generates heat is through chemical reactions. Consequentially, there is minimal CO2 emissions sent into the environment. However, the nuclear waste is harmful to humans and the environment, however, when the waste is processed and stored correctly, the risks can be …show more content…
Thus, nuclear power plants are more efficient than other fossil fuel power plants. Which in turn means that there are fewer natural resources being used to generate energy. Consequentially, there is less damage done to the natural environment to obtain the resources necessary to produce sufficient power.
Cons:
Some of the disadvantages of using nuclear power include, accidents have larger impacts, automatically a terrorist target, many operators have legal waivers in place, completely centralized, waste lasts a long time, and there are many unknown risks (Lombardo, 2015).
When nuclear power plants have issues or problems, they have larger and more impactful consequences (Lombardo, 2015). The risk of radiation leaking out of the fission chamber or its containment unit causes many people to fear nuclear power. The nuclear power plant naturally become a target for terrorists, which means that the nuclear power plant must be guarded at all times. The fear is that if a terrorist attack is successful, there could be a nuclear
A 9.0 magnitude earthquake began on March 11th, 2011 at 2:46 PM and lasted 3 minutes (World Nuclear Association, 2016). The earthquake was centered 130 km off the shore of Sendai Myagi on the east coast of Honshu Island. Consequentially, the island to move four meters to the east and surrounding coastlines were subsided by up to one meter. The earthquake also created a tsunami reaching as high as 40 meters. At the time of the earthquake, there were 11 nuclear reactors operating in the region. When the earthquake struck, all 11 shut down automatically and available power was used to run the cooling pumps at most of the units which achieved cold shutdown in a few days. Unfortunately, a major accident happened at Tepco’s Fukushima Daiichi …show more content…
Although there is a large cost associated with building a new nuclear power plant, the rest of the energy creation process is relatively affordable. Once the nuclear power plant gets going and is able to pay off the first costs, it becomes cheaper to create energy than other forms of fossil fuels.
The power that is generated by nuclear power is stable enough that it can be used with virtually any other source of power, including renewable sources of power (Lombardo, 2015). “Because of this stability, the demands of the nuclear power plant can be adjusted according to the power that is supplied from other sources.” Consequentially, nuclear power is reliable and flexible to the needs of the power company and society as a whole.
Additionally, there is relatively little pollution to the atmosphere due to the way energy is created at a nuclear power plant (Lombardo, 2015). Since the way nuclear power generates heat is through chemical reactions. Consequentially, there is minimal CO2 emissions sent into the environment. However, the nuclear waste is harmful to humans and the environment, however, when the waste is processed and stored correctly, the risks can be …show more content…
Thus, nuclear power plants are more efficient than other fossil fuel power plants. Which in turn means that there are fewer natural resources being used to generate energy. Consequentially, there is less damage done to the natural environment to obtain the resources necessary to produce sufficient power.
Cons:
Some of the disadvantages of using nuclear power include, accidents have larger impacts, automatically a terrorist target, many operators have legal waivers in place, completely centralized, waste lasts a long time, and there are many unknown risks (Lombardo, 2015).
When nuclear power plants have issues or problems, they have larger and more impactful consequences (Lombardo, 2015). The risk of radiation leaking out of the fission chamber or its containment unit causes many people to fear nuclear power. The nuclear power plant naturally become a target for terrorists, which means that the nuclear power plant must be guarded at all times. The fear is that if a terrorist attack is successful, there could be a nuclear