Chemistry Essay
Today, many countries are depending more and more on nuclear energy to produce electricity. Although, nuclear energy can bring many benefits, such as nuclear fission, which releases no carbon dioxide, it also brings many risks to many countries that use nuclear energy. This was proved, in many disasters that nuclear energy caused years ago, like the Chernobyl Disaster in April 26, 1986, which was said that, “the radiation released was to be 200 times that of Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombs combined (Smashing Lists, 2011).” Not only can nuclear energy cause disasters, but the amount of uranium used is both a lot and risky. In addition, the majority of the countries use nuclear energy, which can cause potential danger to the country and its people. Although nuclear energy produces nuclear fission, which does not release carbon dioxide, but releases steam, as well as producing more electricity than renewables like solar and wind, nuclear energy can, as well, impact the environment in negative ways. According to the discovery website, nuclear energy requires uranium, which must be mined and transported to power plants. Due to this process, there is an issue of radioactive waste. This waste is not biodegradable nor helpful at all. As a matter a fact, this is extremely dangerous because most plants store there waste in steel- lined concrete basins filled with water, where it remains radioactive for thousands of years. One can argue that nuclear energy are more reliable to produce electricity because they are dependent on wind and sun. This is a weak argument because nuclear energy depends on uranium which is an infinite supply, according to the discovery website. Once uranium is gone, it is gone for good and there is no way for nuclear energy to produce electricity anymore. Also, based on Time for Change, the radioactive waste that is produced can potentially be turned into nuclear weapons. These nuclear weapons can cause enormous amounts of