Comparison Of Nuclear Power And Fossil Fuels Environmental Sciences Essay

Comparison Of thermonuclear Power And Fossil Fuels Environmental Sciences turn upIn todays world there be various ways of producing strength. In the past almost of the muscle came from fogey terminates fogy fuels were always apply to produce readiness beca utilisation they were cheap and available in vast cores. Nowadays, beca recitation of the special(a) amount of dodo fuels around the world and the high prices people fork over started to put on otherwise ways of producing push button. Nuclear exp hotshotnt is one of the some resources immediately being use in order to keep the use of fogey fuels surmount. In this paper I will discuss fossil fuels, thermo atomic power and the advantages and disadvantages of both.What are fossil fuels? Coal, gas, and oil are the tether main fossil fuels. They accept been formed from the organic remains of past plants and animals more than 300 million years ago. According to nada and the Environment, fuel refers to e preci sething that can be burned as a source of dynamism therefore, fossil fuels are the remains of animals and plants that have formed into materials that can be burned. The type of fossil fuel created depends on the kind of plants or animals and the amount of heat and pressure. The energy stored in fossil fuels originally came from the sun. When we burn fossil fuels, we release that stored energy. All the across world fossil fuels are the most widely used type of energy fossil fuels have been used to drive power for almost everything that one uses. Among all of the fossil fuels, natural gas and oil are more commonly used because they are rather easy to transport, they have low emissions, and are easy to handle. It has been tell that, except for coal, the supply of the other fossil fuels are sure to be depleted in a few decades.As of right at present, harmonise to Wikipedia- Fossil fuels supply close to 86% of the worlds energy. This is a large destiny of energy to be supplied by just fossil fuels. As I have already stated, we are currently in an energy crisis and fossil fuels are the lifeblood of our society and for numerous others around the world. Our supply is slowly attack to an end, which is why we have become more than willing to go to contend for it and make friends with those whom we really hate. Lately the former Soviet Union and some of the countries in the Middle East are in our good elevate strictly because of the oil reserves that they have. Our foreign aid has a consistent purpose. Even though we have befriended our enemies, fossil fuels will run let on and the use of them will soon take the lives of many people. These are distinguished reasons to find other heart and soul of getting the energy we need to pertain our society as we know it.So what options do we have? resource forms of energy are currently under bewilderment even though most of them are only in their initial stages. With more second from the government and public su pport, we may be able to speed up the development of these technologies and help free ourselves from the mast amount of usage of fossil fuels.http//www.myclimatechange.net/UserImage/3/Definition/WorldEnergyConcemption19652005-1.jpgThis is definitely a serious problem, and as inhabitants of the world we mustiness all come together and try to resolve the problem at hand. Even though some scientist put a time brush on how much longer they think that fossil fuels are hand reveal to closing, no one really knows. It will all depend on how well we manage our energy demands along with how well we can develop and use renewable energy sources.Nuclear power is energy which is produced with the use of a control lead nuclear reaction. Many nations use nuclear power plants to generate electricity for both civilian and military use, and some nations also utilize nuclear power to run parts of their naval fleets, especially submarines. whatsoever people favor an expansion of nuclear power plant s because this form of energy is considered cleaner than fossil fuels much(prenominal) as coal. Nuclear power does thence come with a number of proble.ms that must be addressed, most importantly being the safe disposal of radioactive waste products.According to Energy and the Environment, The entire physical world is made of atoms the word atom is derived from the classical word atomos which means invisible. Atoms, the smallest component of any element, contains enormous energy. When it is split a offset called fission, this energy is released in the forms of tremendous heat and light. It is this energy that was released on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, by two separate atom bombs in 1945 that led to the demonstration of World War II. This horrific scene created by those two bombs led the international community to condemn any further use of atomic weapons.Still, engineers, governments and scientists realized that if the atoms energy could be controlled and harnessed, it woul d revolutionize the worlds energy markets and provide important electricity reserves to help meet the worlds energy demands. It was even ideate that it could one day replace the need for fossil fuels. As a result, the first usable electricity from nuclear fission was produced at the Idaho national Engineering Laboratory in 1951.Nuclear energy requires sources of radioactive elements found naturally in our environment and manmade with which to create the nuclear fission serve up that splits the atoms. uracil is the most common and most used of these elements. The only other available sources that are used for nuclear energy is atomic number 94 and Thorium. Plutonium is non naturally occurring. Thus, the Plutonium used in nuclear reactors is man-made, climax from a nuclear reactor. According to the Ecology worldwide Network, Thorium, though not yet a mainstream nuclear energy supply source, is being intemperately studied and applied as a safer, cleaner alternative to Uranium. Still, Uranium is king as the premiere provider of nuclear energy.Perhaps the sterling(prenominal) challenge facing nuclear energy production after any potential for nuclear disasters similar to the 1986 Chernobyl event is the disposal of the highly radioactive wastes. Because it can take up to 10,000 years for these materials to fully break down into harmless elements the challenge is to store them safely for at least that aloofness of time. Even though it is possible, where and how are until now major(ip) issues.Exploitable Uranium supplies still pose some short-term challenges. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the worlds economically exploitable Uranium reserves are likely to last between 35 and 63 years, depending on whether demand is such as to justify the higher(prenominal) woo of mining less easily exploitable reserves.Still, in consideration of the power that can be generated by Uranium and the burgeoning globular energy demands, many governments are placing more emphasis on nuclear energy. The largest user of nuclear energy is the United States, followed by France, Japan, Germany and the Russian Federation. In the US alone, the nations 103 nuclear power plants each generate an average of around 20 tons of radioactive spent fuel a year. Spent fuel now sits in cooling pools and temporary storage areas waiting for somebody to traffic pattern out what to do with it.When you begin to compare fossil fuels to nuclear energy you are able to see that there are many advantages and disadvantages of both. unsloped because we have used fossil fuels for most of the worlds energy doesnt mean that we should relate to use what supply of it we have left. Even though nuclear energy is not yet as popular as the use of fossil fuels there definitely has been and will continue to be, a rise in its use.Advantage of Fossil FuelsDisadvantages of Fossil FuelsEasily distributedProbable contributor to global warmingInexpensive prod uctionCause of acid rain force to generate huge amounts of electricity in just a wizard locationQuestionable availability of some fuelsSimple combustion process can directly heat or generate electricity study increase in pricesCompared toAdvantages of Nuclear powerDisadvantages of Nuclear PowerNo Greenhouse GasesHigh initial cost because plant requires containment safeguardsNo Criteria Pollutants screw up products can be used to manufacture weaponsLowest impacts on the environmentPossibility of nuclear meltdown from uncontrolled reactionLowest cost producer of base load electricityNuclear reactors only last for close forty to fifty years.After we look at and fail both fossil fuels, and nuclear energy we notice that both types of energies have their pros and cons. There is no way that anyone could say that there is a major difference in the two that would lead one to believe that one is better than the other. As I have already stated, fossil fuels are definitely a great energy pro ducer. When large amounts of fossil fuels such as coal, gas, and oil are available production can be easily done at a low cost with scant(p) or no problems. But as we know, because the availability of fossil fuels is now lessening, we have no other choice than to find alternative energy sources, thus being the case nuclear energy is a very good choice. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute Clean personal line of credit Energy, Nuclear energy is Americas largest source of clean- air travel, carbon-free electricity, producing no greenhouse gases or air pollutants, nuclear power plants aid compliance with the Clean Air bend of 1970, which set standards to improve the nations air quality. This statement says a lot about Nuclear Energy and is really able to show readers just how trenchant using nuclear energy can be.In conclusion, even though I believe that fossil fuels have served us greatly charm they have been around in a plentiful supply I think we now need to come out from the state we are in, one that relies fully on fossil fuels alone. We need to venture out and try new means of energy production new means such as nuclear power. I believe that even though nuclear power may have some high initial be it is well worth it. As Ross Garnaut said, A revolution in humanitys use of fossil fuel-based energy would be necessary sooner or later to sustain and to extend modern standards of living. It will be require sooner if we are to hold the risks of climate change to acceptable levels. The costs that we bear in making an early adjustment will get down forward, and reduce for future times, the costs of the inevitable eventual adjustment outdoor(a) from fossil fuels.Reference PageCohen, Bernard L. The Nuclear Energy Option. Plenum, 1990.The Ecology Global Network Ecology News and Information for Residents of Planet Earth. Web. 16 Nov. 2009. .Nuclear Energy Institute Clean-Air Energy. Web. 16 Nov. 2009. .Toossi, Reza. Energy and the Environment-Sources, t echnologies, and impacts. 2nd ed. Los Angeles, CA verve Inc., 2008Wikipedia. Web. 16 Nov. 2009. .