Nuclear Energy
Fossil fuels are running out at an alarming rate. For example, the world uses 3,948,000,000 U.S. gallons of oil per day or 94 million barrels. This oil took 10′s of millions
of years to be created. Many experts predict we have reached Peak Oil
(Maximum point of Oil Production) and are now seeing a decline. For some
reason, people don’t seem to be worried that at our current rate of
usage, our Oil reserves, which makes up 40.7% of today’s energy, will run out in less than 45 years (although
this figure does not account for increase in population, increase in
oil usage or increase in oil production). This is not only the case for
oil, but also many other fossil fuels.
What is
even worse is the negative effects of these fossil fuels. Processing
these fossil fuels emits gases into the air (mainly Carbon Dioxide)
which are harmful to the atmosphere. They damage the atmosphere causing global warming.
Another
negative effect are oil spills. For example, the Deepwater Horizon
Explosion, in an undersea BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is dubbed
the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. 11 workers were killed as roughly 4 billion barrels of oil were spilled. Roughly 82,000 birds, 6,165 sea turtles, and up to 25,900 marine mammals were killed.
Despite
the negative effects of fossil fuels, especially Oil, the vast majority
of the population are still unwilling to change to renewable energy,
due to it’s disadvantages (too much initial fees, not efficient enough
etc.) Here is where Nuclear energy could step in.
There is plenty of Uranium available for Nuclear Energy. We currently have 5.5 million metric tons of Uranium, along with 10.5 million metric tons currently undiscovered. We could likely power the world solely on Nuclear Energy for approximately 45 years. Although it is not yet economically viable, extracting Uranium from sea water could yield 4.5 billion metric tons of Uranium or 12,000 years worth of Energy supply!
Despite these facts, Nuclear Energy consumption is actually dropping, and only met 11.7% of world energy needs in 2011. The world only has 434 reactors operating.
Why isn’t Nuclear Energy used more?
Well
here is where I finally get to answering the question (sorry for the
long intro, it was necessary). Nuclear Energy was used wrongly, to
horrible effects. The worst example is in Chernobyl.
On 26 April 1986, a
level 7 (the Maximum rating) nuclear disaster occured on the
International Nuclear Event scale. They had decided to schedule an
experiment to test a new, potential safety emergency cooling feature.
However it did not work as planned, as reactor four suffered a
catastrophic power increase. This lead to explosions in the core of
reactor four. The event has been blamed on the errors of the Power Plant
Operators and structural damages, caused by negligence during
construction. Either way it is clear that the event could have been
avoided.
As a result of the explosion, 31
people were directly killed. It is predicted that 1,000 cases of Thyroid
cancer and 4,000 cases of other cancers resulted from the radiation.
Over 3,600,000 acres of land were rendered useless for production. The
Soviet Union spent roughly 18 billion rubles on the disaster, causing
severe economic consequences. Belarus is estimated to have spent $235
billion over the past 30 years on the disaster. It also obliterated many
animals in the local environment
Events such
as the Chernobyl disaster show how Nuclear Energy, which could have been
so useful in today’s world, has been utilised wrongly. It has also been
used in Nuclear bombs, further staining it’s image. If used correctly,
it could be a solution to many of our problems. Unfortunately, due to
it’s incorrect implementation, we have to face these horrific disasters
instead.
Sources :
EDIT
: A number of people have talked about Thorium and how its safer than
uranium. At the time of writing this answer, I was not aware of the vast
supplies of Thorium and I believed that it was a rare resource. I would
like to add now that Thorium would actually be a superior alternative
to Uranium
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