Nuclear Energy: The Future of Humanity's Energy Source

Introduction

For the past century, man has become innovative and he invented an energy which is very strong and reliable; this is the nuclear energy. At the start of the 21st-century man used nuclear energy to make nuclear bombs especially in the Second World War and the latter this energy was used in generating electricity power which was insufficient and highly demanded .This energy proved to be of great importance but also, it was a disaster to the human race.

Advantages of nuclear energy

Nuclear power is the splitting of radioactive isotopes of some elements such as uranium and plutonium elements. These elements produce nuclear energy which in the case of production of electricity, this energy is used in heating water to steam which in turn rotates the turbines to produce electricity.

This technology was initially developed in the 1940s during the Second World War which was used to make the atomic bombs such as those used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Blix 1989). Later in 1959 it was used for peaceful motives in the production of electricity energy. Currently the world most of the electricity is produced by this method compared to the other sources of electricity especially in the developed countries such as the United States (Baker 2015).

The rise for a cheap and reliable source of power has risen in the recent past and many countries opted to go for the nuclear power. This ensured that there was a plentiful supply of electricity to its consumers due to the growing population. Many developed countries such as the Ukraine, china and japan built these nuclear plants in order to satisfy their demand for electricity. This helped in ensuring places such as the urban areas were well provided with electricity.

Nuclear energy has evidently shown to be of great importance to man and his environment. This is because it provides relatively low costs of electricity. This type of energy is very cheap since it uses very little resources to produce huge amounts of power. Despite being the initial cost of construction being expensive, it has proven to be cheap after completion of the plants since it provides sufficient electricity which satisfies the demand compared to other sources of electricity (Blix 1989).

Also, this type of energy has a stable base load energy. This is because it may be reduced or increased based on whether the other sources of electricity such as the wind and solar are in plentiful or not. This helps in satisfying demand when the other sources are excess or insufficient. Nevertheless, nuclear energy has low pollution to the environment. This because during the production of this energy there is no emission of carbon atoms to the environment hence it is very environmentally friendly (McIntyre1978).

Moreover, this type of source of power is very flexible since greener elements may be used such as thorium which has minimum pollution and also is less harmful. This makes it a better source of energy compared to other sources of energy. Furthermore, this type of power produces very high energy density. This is where the energy released during nuclear fission is very high compared to other sources of power hence it is preferably compared to other sources of power (Baker 2015).

Despite this method proving to be of great importance, it has also proven to be of various disadvantages. To start with, in case an accident happens the radioactive compounds which are very radioactive provides harm to the environment and to the humans. This type of case happened in Chernobyl Ukraine where there was an accident at the plant (McIntyre 1978). Many people were killed and many others left with health problems. This clearly shows this type of energy is very dangerous and can cause major side effects.

Also, this type of power may release radioactive waste which is very harmful. This may happen when the waste is disposed carelessly and could cause various consequences to the environment and the ecosystem surrounding it (McIntyre 1978).

Furthermore, nuclear energy showed to be very harmful when used in war. This was during the bombing of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki which led to the death of many people and also health effects to the survivors who feel the effects till today.

Conclusion

Nuclear power has greatly shown its strengths and also disadvantages, where it has shown to very helpful to the human race and also very harmful to the same individuals. Human beings have to, therefore, control this energy by being very careful producing it in order to avoid future tragedies.