Nuclear power is one of the most controversial topics ever. you can hear many different story’s about nuclear power and here I will change your opinion on to why it is good.

CO2 Emissions, energy production, and waste.

When you hear about different forms of energy you probably think that Wind power or Hydro Electricity is the best form of green energy. But in reality, nuclear power is the best form of energy we have, and here is why.

Link to the graph: https://www.energyforhumanity.org/en/briefings/energy/nuclear-and-carbon-emissions-the-facts/ 

As you can see on this graph, Nuclear Power is the second lowest in CO2 emissions. Per the graph, you’ll probably think that On-shore wind power is the best, but here is the problem, wind power produces 380 Billion KWH a year, whilst a nuclear power plant produces 778 Billion KWH a year. Wind produces almost half of the amount of power. You will need two wind turbines just to make the amount of energy a nuclear power plant makes.

Perhaps you’re thinking about the waste that gets produced by nuclear power, but there is a solution to that. A Breeder Reactor is designed to fission the actinide wastes as fuel, and thus convert them to more fission products. Simply the Breeder Reactor uses the waste produced by it and turns it into reusable fuel for the reactor. Therefore, the Breeder Reactor does not produce waste.

Regarding the production of Co2 once the nuclear reactor is powered it produces almost no Co2. The most Co2 is produced when the power plant is being built. 

Nuclear power plants cost a lot to be built, which is a downside to nuclear power. But if you think about it, it’s better to have few nuclear power plants than have numerous wind turbines which cause a host of other issues.

Why nuclear power is safer than you think.

When you think of nuclear power you might think of nuclear events too, such as “Chernobyl 1986 (U.S.S.R. now Ukraine)” “The Three Mile Island accident 1979 (U.S.A.)” “Fukushima nuclear disaster 2011 (Japan)” etc. and they all had a cause. The Chernobyl nuclear disaster and what happened. On April 26, 1986, reactor 4 went under a series of tests, one of the tests was the reactor running on low power, but the problem was faulty equipment and non-properly trained personnel. The personnel accidentally dropped the power output to near zero. While recovering from the power drop and stabilizing the reactor, the personnel removed several control rods. More than the allowed limits, once the test was complete the personnel activated the reactor shutdown. But because of the design flaw, this resulted in a Positive Scram (Reactivity of the reactor). This resulted in the rapture of fuel channels which in turn caused a rapid decrease in pressure causing the coolant to turn into steam. And due to the reactor activity, the coolant kept rising in pressure. This resulted in steam explosions and due to no coolant melting the reactor core. The meltdown and explosions damaged the reactor core and destroyed the reactor building. This was immediately followed by an open-air reactor core fire which lasted until 4 May 1986, during which airborne radioactive particles were released and spread to other parts of the USSR and Europe. All of the events were caused by faulty equipment and human error. If the personnel had been properly trained they would have known what to do and what not to do, and if they took proper maintenance and proper care of the reactor this event could have been prevented. The other disasters (Three-mile island and Fukushima nuclear disaster) Three-mile island is a bit similar to chernobyl but the reactor did not explode. A tsunami caused the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Which you can’t prevent from happening.  As you can see the disasters were caused by things that can be prevented (Except for the Fukushima nuclear disaster) if you properly train personnel and keep the equipment in proper maintenance, a nuclear disaster has almost a 0% chance of happening. 

How does a Nuclear Reactor work?

For starters, I would like to mention that nuclear reactors do not release radiation into the atmosphere unless the nuclear power plant is damaged. First, the nuclear fission heats the water and then is pumped into a heat exchanger, which creates steam. The steam then turns an electric generator thus making electricity. The water cycles back to the reactor to be reheated and the process is repeated. (This of course isn’t every single part of how it works I just simplified it down for easy understanding.)

Conclusion

In conclusion, nuclear power is one of the best forms of energy. And with properly trained personnel and properly maintained equipment nuclear power is one of the safest forms of energy.

Word List

• Fission: when a neutron collides into a larger atom, forcing it to split into two smaller atoms
• USSR: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR (also known as the soviet union)) is now present-day Russia.
• KWH: Kilowatt-hour (Kilowatt the form of energy, and hour the unit of time)
• Co2: Carbon dioxide
• SCRAM: A button used for emergency shutdown of the reactor

Resources: 

https://www.energyforhumanity.org/en/briefings/energy/nuclear-and-carbon-emissions-the-facts/

https://www.inspirecleanenergy.com/blog/clean-energy-101/how-much-energy-does-wind-turbine-produce

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=104&t=3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor#:~:text=Breeder%20reactors%20are%20designed%20to,decays%20at%20a%20different%20rate.

https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/focus/chernobyl/faqs#:~:text=What%20caused%20the%20Chernobyl%20accident,of%20radiation%20into%20the%20atmosphere 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster 

https://www.google.com/?safe=active&ssui=on

https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/nuclear-101-how-does-nuclear-reactor-work#:~:text=The%20water%20in%20the%20core,and%20the%20process%20is%20repeated.