6 Misconceptions About Nuclear Power and Why It’s Safer Than Solar, Wind and Hydro Energy
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\nI think it\u2019s fairly safe to say that we\u00a0all know about fossil fuels being bad for our environment and health. The most common fossil fuels\u00a0are\u00a0natural gas, coal, and oil, which\u00a0account for\u00a0about 70% of energy being used on earth.<\/p>\n
We also know that mankind is in desperate need of alternative energy sources<\/strong> to both save\u00a0our earth\u2019s atmosphere (global warming) and simply because fossil fuels are non-sustainable and will deplete within the next 100 years<\/strong>. Oil being the first to go, expected to last only about 40 more years, natural gas to deplete in the 2070s and coal to last us into the first few decades of the 22nd century.<\/p>\n
So, what are our options? What have scientists come up with in the past few decades? Will we be in time to find a solid, sustainable energy source before earth explodes and we all perish?\u00a0Or maybe we have already found the solution, only it is being suppressed by a general misconception of it being incredibly unsafe, environmentally destructive and deadly?<\/strong><\/p>\n
This list is an attempt to bring some awareness about the\u00a0real<\/strong> pros and cons of nuclear energy, compared fossil fuels and to the \u201cclean\u201d energy we are all being taught about: electricity generated from solar, wind and hydro (water) energy. Of course this is part of my personal perception, but also based on information gathered from around the internet. The sources aren\u2019t dodgy conspiracy theorists, but fairly trustworthy entities like the World Health Organization\u00a0and\u00a0the UN (or rather UNSCEAR, more information later on).<\/p>\n
Below I will cover a couple of major misconceptions that seem to have slipped into our mostly negative perception about nuclear power plants, the energy that it generates\u00a0and the nuclear pollution that it supposedly brings. I think it\u2019s\u00a0important for people to know the\u00a0real<\/strong>\u00a0facts about this energy source, which is undoubtedly safer than any other energy source<\/strong> we know of today.<\/p>\n
I won\u2019t go too much into the other common natural energy sources and this is why:<\/h3>\n
\n
- \nSolar panels<\/strong>\u00a0cannot continuously generate energy, simply because of night and day cycles and weather conditions. On top of that,\u00a0most solar cells\u00a0in use today have left so much pollution (heavy metals) in parts of China (where it\u2019s built) that it would be easy to see its counter-productiveness. Of course the technology keeps advancing so maybe in the future it will be more reliable and less polluting. But still: at night there\u2019s no sun.<\/li>\n
- \nWind mills<\/strong> (or wind turbines)\u00a0are even less reliable because it is not always windy enough to keep them running so there\u2019s not a consistent energy stream. Not to mention the eye-sore of a wind farm with\u00a0a few dozen mills, that only generate power for a few thousand homes. It\u2019s even said that\u00a0our\u00a0health could be\u00a0suffering from\u00a0these bigger wind farms by\u00a0what is called the \u201cwind-turbine syndrome<\/a>\u201c.<\/li>\n
- \nHydro<\/strong> (water) energy\u00a0is generated by making water fall from a height, which spins\u00a0huge turbine blades which in turn\u00a0generate electricity. The space that is needed for water reservoirs and their dams is enormous and makes for ecosystem damage and loss of land, which doesn\u2019t make it very efficient to power an entire nation (let alone a lot of countries are too flat to even consider dropping water from higher than a few meters).\u00a0The biggest problem with water reservoirs is the still water: because vegetation in and directly around the water reservoir rots it emits fairly large amounts of\u00a0carbon dioxide and methane (mostly with hydro plants in tropical regions). So even though these hydro plants don\u2019t burn any fuel, there is still pollution to take into consideration.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Some quick facts about nuclear power before we move on:<\/h3>\n
\n
- Nuclear power is simply the generation of\u00a0useful heat and electricity<\/li>\n
- The only direct emission from nuclear power plants is water\u00a0vapor<\/li>\n
- Technically this water vapor is considered a \u201cgreenhouse gas\u201d, but the emission of this high heat gas is comparable to the emission rates of wind turbines<\/li>\n
- Nuclear power is not entirely eco-friendly, because a lot of energy (fossil fuel) is used in the mining and enrichment of uranium, the source for nuclear power. However, this\u00a0indirect pollution\u00a0is\u00a0far less than for example the oil industry and with a\u00a0much<\/em> higher yield than any other energy source.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
So let\u2019s continue\u00a0with the\u00a06 general misconceptions about nuclear power:<\/h3>"}],"useSlideSources":"true","prevPost":"http:\/\/allyouneedislists.com\/technology\/website-speed-test\/","nextPost":null,"prevText":"Prev","nextText":"Next","buttonWidth":"0","prevText_post":"Prev post","nextText_post":"Next post","buttonWidth_post":"0","postUrl":"http:\/\/allyouneedislists.com\/technology\/nuclear-power\/","postId":11627,"refreshAds":"true","refreshAdsEveryNSlides":"5","adRefreshingMechanism":"page","siteUrl":"http:\/\/allyouneedislists.com"};
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Some quick facts about nuclear power before we move on:<\/h3>\n
\n
- Nuclear power is simply the generation of\u00a0useful heat and electricity<\/li>\n
- The only direct emission from nuclear power plants is water\u00a0vapor<\/li>\n
- Technically this water vapor is considered a \u201cgreenhouse gas\u201d, but the emission of this high heat gas is comparable to the emission rates of wind turbines<\/li>\n
- Nuclear power is not entirely eco-friendly, because a lot of energy (fossil fuel) is used in the mining and enrichment of uranium, the source for nuclear power. However, this\u00a0indirect pollution\u00a0is\u00a0far less than for example the oil industry and with a\u00a0much<\/em> higher yield than any other energy source.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
So let\u2019s continue\u00a0with the\u00a06 general misconceptions about nuclear power:<\/h3>"}],"useSlideSources":"true","prevPost":"http:\/\/allyouneedislists.com\/technology\/website-speed-test\/","nextPost":null,"prevText":"Prev","nextText":"Next","buttonWidth":"0","prevText_post":"Prev post","nextText_post":"Next post","buttonWidth_post":"0","postUrl":"http:\/\/allyouneedislists.com\/technology\/nuclear-power\/","postId":11627,"refreshAds":"true","refreshAdsEveryNSlides":"5","adRefreshingMechanism":"page","siteUrl":"http:\/\/allyouneedislists.com"};
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So let\u2019s continue\u00a0with the\u00a06 general misconceptions about nuclear power:<\/h3>"}],"useSlideSources":"true","prevPost":"http:\/\/allyouneedislists.com\/technology\/website-speed-test\/","nextPost":null,"prevText":"Prev","nextText":"Next","buttonWidth":"0","prevText_post":"Prev post","nextText_post":"Next post","buttonWidth_post":"0","postUrl":"http:\/\/allyouneedislists.com\/technology\/nuclear-power\/","postId":11627,"refreshAds":"true","refreshAdsEveryNSlides":"5","adRefreshingMechanism":"page","siteUrl":"http:\/\/allyouneedislists.com"};
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