Rough Draft Here is something that many of you may already know (especially the chemistry teachers reading this paper): Everything around us is made of atoms. Although this may seem just an obvious fact that everyone has told us since our younger years, one needs to explore what this means in terms of our society today. When talking about atoms, we can smoothly transition to the topic of nuclear energy. This energy put simply is the energy holding an atom together: the nucleus, electrons, etc. (What is Nuclear?). This energy is so strong that it’s even called “the greatest force in nature” (How Nuclear Power Works). The fascinating science of nuclear energy can be shown to have a tremendous environmental factor. The science behind the atom
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First of all, as talked about briefly above, nuclear energy has little to no atmospheric emissions of pollutants and thus does not contribute to one of the biggest problems the world faces today: global warming (What is Nuclear?). Although the process of fission has radioactive byproducts, steps are being taken by the government to contain these substances safely for reuse in the future (Nuclear Energy). And, for the picky people out there, when factoring in the carbon emitted through the process of uranium mining and the construction of the nuclear plant, nuclear energy still displays emissions 50 times less than coal plant emission s and 25 times less than natural gas plant emissions (What is Nuclear?). Not only that, nuclear energy also has been shown to be safe. Although there have been big disasters such as the Three Mile Island disaster in 1979 when there was a reactor core meltdown, causing a release of radioactive material into the atmosphere (Nuclear Energy). Another such event which happened in Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986 was even worse. A steam explosion in one of the plants caused a fire which created a plume of radioactive particles called a fallout (Nuclear Energy). This was disastrous for the environment as well as the people several kilometers from the site of the accident. Entire pine forests were killed and the ground water was poisoned as well as a local river called the Pripyat River (Nuclear Energy). Some scientists even say that 4,000 deaths will be linked to the nuclear fallout of Chernobyl (Eremenko, A). Although this may be the case, nuclear energy is still supported by the government and the people of Chernobyl (Eremenko, A). In fact, nuclear energy powers every other lightbulb in Ukraine and Tetiana Verbytska of the State Scientific and Technical Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of Ukraine said, “While the majority of the
First of all, as talked about briefly above, nuclear energy has little to no atmospheric emissions of pollutants and thus does not contribute to one of the biggest problems the world faces today: global warming (What is Nuclear?). Although the process of fission has radioactive byproducts, steps are being taken by the government to contain these substances safely for reuse in the future (Nuclear Energy). And, for the picky people out there, when factoring in the carbon emitted through the process of uranium mining and the construction of the nuclear plant, nuclear energy still displays emissions 50 times less than coal plant emission s and 25 times less than natural gas plant emissions (What is Nuclear?). Not only that, nuclear energy also has been shown to be safe. Although there have been big disasters such as the Three Mile Island disaster in 1979 when there was a reactor core meltdown, causing a release of radioactive material into the atmosphere (Nuclear Energy). Another such event which happened in Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986 was even worse. A steam explosion in one of the plants caused a fire which created a plume of radioactive particles called a fallout (Nuclear Energy). This was disastrous for the environment as well as the people several kilometers from the site of the accident. Entire pine forests were killed and the ground water was poisoned as well as a local river called the Pripyat River (Nuclear Energy). Some scientists even say that 4,000 deaths will be linked to the nuclear fallout of Chernobyl (Eremenko, A). Although this may be the case, nuclear energy is still supported by the government and the people of Chernobyl (Eremenko, A). In fact, nuclear energy powers every other lightbulb in Ukraine and Tetiana Verbytska of the State Scientific and Technical Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of Ukraine said, “While the majority of the