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Rashaud Fields English IV, B8

Nuclear Energy Research Paper

Our world as a whole entire planet is looking for a very clean resource of energy that is cheap and more productive. The United States of America is looking for this exact clean safe

resource of energy, but other places like in the Middle East They do not really care about the environments issues. The Middle East cares more about having the most power and the money aspect of the issue. Nuclear energy was brought up as a second option for other ways of getting energy, which is getting into the topic that I would like to discuss. So make sure you keeping reading so you can find out some valid points, and what is my view on nuclear energy. Nuclear energy is used in wars; nuclear energy can be used as a weapon of mass destruction; while it benefits the economy; it can also benefit our environment. Militants sometimes use nuclear energy as a weapon. There only has been two times that nuclear weaponry has been used in war. The United States of America used them on both occasions. The United States used them during the ending of World War II on August 6, 1945. They named their weapon Little Boy. They used the bomb on Hiroshima, which is a city in Japan. On August 9, 1945, which is precisely three days later, they launched another bomb on the city of Nagasaki in Japan. The new bomb was named Fat Man. These bombing were a result of Japan attacking Pearl Harbor (Nuclear Energy facts). Japan attacked the United States without a warning, or war of declaration. The United States were trying to stop Japans emperor who joined forces with Germanys dictator Hitler to rule the world. The bombings was a result to end the horrible things that Germany, and Japan were doing, but many argue that the bombings were unjust, and that the U.S. just needed somewhere to test the bombs out (Nuclear Energy facts). I also agree with this point made because the bombing killed thousands of innocent people, but maybe if they did not do that we would not be where we are today. Japan would probably still be in war and an ally of the genocide dictator Hilter. So although I believe that the bombings and deaths of innocent people I still think that it was a great military advancement, and a solution for future problems.

The bombings destroyed a lot of the country of Japan. The two nuclear bombs launched at Japan were devastating. Both bombs killed more than 200,000 people. The U.S insisted that they two spots they bombed were military targets. Nagasaki itself had a huge ship area that built the worlds biggest battleship known to man, the ship was so huge the U.S feared that it would be a potential threat the United States of America (Nuclear Energy facts). They civilians that were building Japans ship and all their weaponry were also considered United States targets. Therefore, the United States felt that it was right to bomb that area, but they also killed more than just workers they also killed innocent civilians. Using nuclear bombs can affect the earth and destroy its homeostasis and knock it out of balance. It can cause a nuclear winter which is when the climate changes so drastically. Scientists argue that the bombing of Hiroshima could have had a significant impact on the climate making it severely cold, and also reduce there sunlight. After a nuclear impact there is little hope for climate to come back or the earths natural balance. As a result you can have catastrophic events such as: firestorms, a never-ending winter, no more agriculture, and a cloud of never ending smoke. Following a nuclear war it is believed by scientific researchers that more than 100 cities would have firestorms, and that the smoke would stay permanently in our atmosphere, which would cause global warming which is bad for our environment. If we continue to use nuclear energy as a weapon or a threat we will not have an Earth for our future generations. Nuclear power plants require very little amounts of money. It is a major national source of energy. If you think about it all of our houses are ran from some sort of nuclear power. Nuclear power plants are a very secure source of energy that our planet can depend on. The different weather changes or climatic changes will not change or matter to our nuclear power plants, unlike many other resources. We will never have to ask other countries to supply us with this sort of power or depend on them since we can harvest them right in the

United States. Our power plants run for extended periods of time, and give us our basic level of electricity. They are designed to be used for extensive amounts of time. They run on an average of 540 days, before they are refueled (The Benefits of Nuclear Energy). The price for keeping them up is very stable is does not change over time like other electrically resources. An increased capacity factor results in an increase in the production of electricity by nuclear plants. The increase from 1998 to 1999 alone amounted to about 50 billion kilowatt-hours more electricity, for a total of 720 billion kilowatt-hours (The Benefits of Nuclear Energy). You know much power that is for such a little money? It is definitely more than enough. Power plants have future price stability. A nuclear power plant can leverage its high degree of future price stability by selling at a premium to large users an assured source of electricity supply at a known price. For instance, presently some users in California are willing to pay this premium to protect themselves against the damaging effects of price volatility in the day-ahead market. We would be able to power our country using nuclear energy for more than a million years. So basically what I am saying to you is that nuclear power plants are great for our economy. Wouldnt you want clean, and cheap energy? Nuclear power is perfect for our world if it is in the right hands! Nuclear energy is the largest source of emission free energy on our planet Earth (The Benefits of Nuclear Energy). Our nuclear power plants do not give off any controlled air pollutants. So there are not any greenhouse gases that will harm our atmosphere or climate. There will be no need to worry about all the bad effects of using nuclear energy as a weapon. There is no burning to get the electricity from nuclear power plants like there is with burning fossil fuels which is bad for the atmosphere. When dealing with our life under water, it does not harm them what so ever. The water that comes from the power plant has no harmful pollutants that will kill our under water

life. If the water that is discharged is too hot for the aqua life it is then cooled so it will not harm our water animals. Nuclear plants are so environmentally benign that they enable endangered species to live and thrive nearby. Such endangered species as osprey, peregrine falcons, bald eagles, red-cockaded woodpecker, and even the beach tiger beetle have found a home at nuclear power plants (The Benefits of Nuclear Energy). The water that is dumped into lakes, ponds, etc. can develop into to wetlands, which benefits birds, and other animals. Endangered birds can use the area as a home. So theyre species does not die off. By the way it also takes up less space, than a solar farm or wind farm, and takes less energy to be ran. So, why not use a energy source that is clean and safe for our planet! I totally agree with this point made because if there is nothing hurting your or the environment while harnessing the raw energy of our planet. In March 2011 there was a nuclear reactor meltdown in the Fukushima power plant. According to reports, there have been no deaths directly tied to radiation leaks following the meltdown and crippling of the plant in the wake of a 9.0 earthquake, which created a massive tsunami that slammed into the plant (Japanese Prosecutors Drop Charges against TEPCO over Nuclear Meltdown Disaster). The nuclear reactor caused mass destruction in Japan. A private government investigation team came to an agreement that it was a man made disaster (Japanese Prosecutors Drop Charges against TEPCO over Nuclear Meltdown Disaster). The nuclear reactor caused a huge earthquake and tsunami. Officials argued that nothing went wrong with the power plant; the case is still going on until this day. I disagree with the point that officials made, because I do not think anyone or any company should get away with the deaths of thousands of people. There are also future problems that can happen because of this nuclear meltdown. It is very sad to know that your food has high radiation levels, and you have a much higher risk of you getting the deadly disease cancer. Radiation also caused many other health related problems.

With everything on planet Earth there is always pros and cons of using something. Even though nuclear energy can be used in wars as a means of destruction, and although it was used in the bombings of two Japan military cities. I think that it gave us a great military advantage. It can also be used a safe clean form of energy. From my research on the topic of using Nuclear energy I would say that the pros outweigh the cons of using the power. I still believe that it is very horrible to use mass destruction on a lot of innocent lives. We need to just keep our nuclear energy out of the hands of the wrong people. Lets keep running our world with this nature resource. So lets keep this clean energy, and preserve our world!

Works Cited "The Benefits of Nuclear Energy." An Energy Resource for the Community Science Action Guide. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2014. "Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2014. "Does Nuclear Power Lead to Weapons Proliferation?" Vision of Earth. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. "The Energy from a Nuclear Weapon." Atomicarchive.com: Exploring the History, Science, and Consequences of the Atomic Bomb. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. "Japanese Prosecutors Drop Charges against TEPCO over Nuclear Meltdown Disaster." NaturalNews. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. "Nuclear Energy Facts." - Our Energy. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014. "Time for Change." Pros and Cons of Nuclear Power. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.

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