How the Nuclear Power Impact our Life - Research Paper Example

? XXXXX No. XXXXX HOW THE NUCLEAR POWER IMPACT OUR LIFE? XYZ 12 April, How the Nuclear Power Impact our Life? The entry of the nuclear power being a way to obtain every day electrical power has enhanced tremendously during the last couple of decades and is likely to persist in the near future as well. Nevertheless, the application of this kind of power cannot be run without having an exclusive range of implications. A lot of these affects comprise of a spectrum of consequences like environmental impacts, up to great extent modifying the equilibrium related to the natural world and ecosystems relating to both animals and plants of an area, global warming by emitting greenhouse gases, inducing community complications to undertake cultural opinion and threat perceptions of the community residing in the neighborhood of a nuclear power plant. Although the mismanagement and accidents related to nuclear power produces long term devastating conditions over a large geographical areas, however, nuclear power is not only associated with its dark consequences. Today, the same technology is successfully used for the betterment of human society in numbers of fields. This paper covers both negative as well as positive impacts of nuclear power related to several aspects of human society. Negative Impacts Nuclear power deals with nearly four waste matter streams which might cause in deterioration of atmospheric conditions. These include: (a) Creation of nuclear fuel at the atomic reactor which also brings Plutonium waste into account. It also involves the most harmful elements and isotopes plus more than 100 perilous radio-nuclides and carcinogens e.g. Cesium-137, Iodine-131, and Strontium-90 which are exactly the same poisons present in the fallout associated with nuclear weaponry (Sovacool, 2011). (b) Production associated with tailings from uranium mines as well as generators (c) Discharge of small amounts of radioactive isotopes throughout the nuclear operations (d) Discharge of large quantities of harmful radioactive materials (in the event of mishaps) Effects of Nuclear Power Accidents Three Mile Island On March 28, 1979, the discussion regarding the safety and security of nuclear power turned from assumption to truth. A sad accident took place at the nuclear power plant of the Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. The Unit-2 of the plant discharged almost 50% the plant’s radioactive contaminants. Although the disaster finished without a major discharge of harmful radioactive contaminants, however, the widespread release of nuclear toxins created a widespread fear in general public, therefore, a large amount of people evacuated from the surroundings of Pennsylvania. The evacuating area was extended on 30th March and almost 140,000 people left the area of 20 kilometer radius within few days (http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/history.html). The disaster set new horizons in the field of nuclear power and highlighted that a regulated disaster management system regarding the nuclear power accidents is essential. Consequently, new strategies were formulated to deal with nuclear power which include human training, minimizing the human error at nuclear plants, application of latest technology, and techniques to control and plan the emergency conditions (http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/history.html) Chernobyl Disaster In 1986, the disaster took place at the atomic reactor Chernobyl in the Ukraine is still considered as the world’s worst accident in terms of a nuclear plant accident and the aftermaths of this incident are still persisting although a lot have been controlled or minimized. Almost 06% of active radioactive contents of the nuclear plant were discharged into the atmosphere. The mishap forced the evacuation of local population. Almost 0.3 million people evacuated from Kiev and highlighted a harmonious territory to civilization for an indefinite timeframe (Sovacool, 2008). These radioactive contents also included Iodine and Cesium which have a great correlation to human health. Statistics of different reports regarding the fatality loss are debatable and it may range from about few thousand people to about one million people. A substantial volume of radioactive toxins were passed on all over Europe, and Cesium and Strontium infected a huge number of animals, crops, land, and agriculture products. The following table shows a brief picture of long term health effects from Chernobyl disaster. Long Term Health Effects of Chernobyl Category Number of people Cancer deaths from other causes Cancer deaths from radiation (increase) Emergency workers 1,000 180 20 (2.0%) Liquidators (nationwide) 650,000 90,000 2,000 (0.3%) Evacuated 1986 115,000 17,000 400 (0.3%) Infants 1986 (up to 4 years) 1000, 000 Fifty thyroid cancers (treatable) Several thousand thyroid cancers (treatable) After decomposition, the radioactive contents generate contaminants which are able to harm the human body and be responsible for cancer malignancy; specifically Iodine-131 and Cesium-137 have great impacts. From the Chernobyl accident, emissions of Cesium-137 toxified the land. Several thousand men and women who drank milk or used milk products infected with radioactive iodine which constructed thyroid cancer in them (Schoof, 2011). Due to such accidents numbers of countries have changed their SOPs to use the agriculture and food products. In Germany, the use of wild game meat has been banned because of infected radioactive mushrooms. In Britain and Norway, the slaughter of sheep and goats are banned who grazed on radioactive infected land. Certainly, there were short-run environmental affects as well, which included the dangerous exposures to coniferous trees and shrubs and a few little mammals inside of a 10 km area surrounding the reactor. The natural environment had started to recoup by 1989 but continual effects on ecosystems were not notified. An assessment of long lasting genetic outcomes in vegetation or wildlife will take lots of years to settle down the normal ecological systems. Fukushima Disaster In March 2011, an earthquake and tsunami caused a significant damage that led to explosions and partial meltdowns at the Fukushima-I nuclear power plant in Japan. Intensity wise the accident surpassed the 1979’s Three Mile Island accident and is considered as a comparable accident to the Chernobyl accident of 1986. Three of the reactors at Fukushima-I overheated, due to which they eventually led to explosions and released large quantity of radioactive material into the air (Fackler, 2011). Concerns about the large scale radiation leak resulted in 20 km exclusion zone being set up around the nuclear plant and people within 20-30 km radius were advised to stay indoors. Later, in response to fears of spreading of nuclear contaminations, UK, France and some other countries directed their nationals to leave Tokyo. Scientist also claimed that emissions of radioactive Iodine and Cesium reached closer to the values of the Chernobyl accident in 1986 (Winter, 2011). On March 24, 2011, Japanese authorities declared that radioactive Iodine-131 has exceeded beyond the essential safety limitations for young children. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Greenhouse gases are gases encircling our globe which behave as a layer to stop the reduction of heat directly into outer space. By capturing warmth of the Earth, they play a vital role to global warming. The temperatures rising of the earth’s surface caused by greenhouse gases is called the greenhouse effect. Appendix-I on page 14, displays that almost 29 billion tones of carbon dioxide is emitted into air each year (www.world-nuclear.org). All over the world, nuclear plants emit a considerable amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere through different operations like by fuel burning, fuel fabrication, mining, milling, transportation, plant construction, waste disposal management, and decommissioning (Diesendorf, 2007). United States is one of the leading country producing greenhouse gases in atmosphere through nuclear power plants and automobile industry. In USA, the burning of one gallon of petrol generates approximately 8.8 kg of carbon dioxide, one of the most dangerous greenhouse gases (Engber, 2006). A projected data of emission of carbon dioxide gas is shown in Appendix-II as shown on page 15. Experts have different opinions in terms of emissions of greenhouse gases through these nuclear plants. Numerous experts have asserted that a development of nuclear power would certainly assist to bring climate change. Some others have stated that it happens to be a technique to minimize emissions; nevertheless it contains its own issues, like hazards relating to serious nuclear accidents which result in discharge of more radioactive waste disposal. Some scientists and environmentalists have suggested that there can be more effective strategies to overcome the climate change rather than spending heavily on nuclear power (Ramana, 2009). Social Impact Establishing a nuclear power plant in an area always brings huge numbers of issues and critique from the wide selection of community. Individuals in these locations have worries regarding the risk to be exploded to extra ordinary level of the radiation. The sources of normal drinking water also become doubtful to get polluted by the emission of radioactive contents of the plant particularly when the plant makes use of water being a source of heat (Sprangler, 1974). Furthermore, over the post 9/11 scenario, there has recently been an accelerated challenge about the defense and reliability of the nuclear power. Consequently, a great deal of attempts have to continue to persuade the men and women residing close to the plant that the nuclear plant is safely constructed by taking numbers of safety precautions into account. Involving additional effects that it may possibly have on the community, plant commissioning in a region leads to incapacity of visual, leisure and the worth of natural preservation and moreover substantially brings down the valuation of the neighboring place (Sprangler, 1974). The nuclear power has changed the concepts of war as well. A future nuclear war may destroy the whole world and may even bring about the end of human race. The fear of a scientific war fills the minds of many people today and a feeling of insecurity prevails all over the world. Decommission The most critical impacts are those which come about at the moment a nuclear power plant is intended to be decommissioned. It entails the controlling and transfer of radioactive contents. Since aided by the operational capability, the waste materials require be handling and disposing off without creating any risk. Machines are cleaned out and possibly dumped or recycled at some particular place. Like construction process, the decommissioning process also influences the same harmful results on traffic, noise, water, and land. For the adjoining local community, any sort of flaws, for all those decommissioning the plant could contain radioactive toxic contaminations which most probably may have an effect on the regional inhabitants (Sovacool, 2010). Nuclear Power Impacts: Salient Points A report of World Resource Institute (1998) elaborates “One of the oldest metals used by humans, lead is a cumulative neurotoxin that impairs brain development among children and has been connected to elevated blood pressure and resulting hypertension, heart attacks, and premature death in adults. Emissions from vehicles and nuclear plants are the largest source of lead exposure in many urban areas” (WRI 266-267). At the end of this discussion, a summary of salient nuclear power impacts are listed. Nuclear Power Factors Impacts Fossil Fuels (a) Climate change at global scale (b) Air quality polluted by coal and oil (c) Depletion of resources (d) Land disturbances (e) Degradation of forests and acidification in lakes (f) Giving off radioactive contaminations to groundwater Renewable energy resources (solar energy, wind turbines, biomass, geothermal) (a) Changes the cycle and balance of ecosystem (b) Noise pollution (by wind turbines) (c) Polluted air quality (by geothermal and biomass energy resources) (d) Extensive use of land Nuclear (energy chains) (a) Discharge of radioactive contaminants (b) Waste disposal Positive Effects of Nuclear Plants Properly used for the benefit of man, atomic powers can bring about greater comforts and better living for all. Besides, continued research into the science of nuclear physics will add to the knowledge, and hence to the cultural background and mental stature, of the men of the future. There is hardly any aspect of life in which the peaceful atom is not making itself useful. Environment Due to the fact that nuclear power usually does not burn up fossil powers, they generate carbon dioxide in fewer amounts, which is the main factor to cause worldwide global heating. A tiny amount of Uranium is able to give off a massive amount of electric power. Max W. Carbon, says “The nuclear energy in a pound of Uranium is three million times the energy released in burning a pound of coal”. Health Perhaps the greatest blessing of atomic energy is its use in medical science to treat the diseases. According to World Resources Institute, vegetations which implement fossil energy sources put out particulates to the environment which is a form of polluting the environment and related to cause lung cancers and also affect the respiratory system (WRI, 1998). On the other hand, nuclear plants do not possess a by-product. Up to great extent, it is the fact that these plants give off certain radioactive isotopes which are of no concerns during ordinary operations. Here few examples of the medical benefits of nuclear power are presented. Radio-isotopes are yielding most significant results in the medical world. Cobalt-60 and Caesium-167, obtained as ‘ash’ from atomic furnaces, are in the forefront of the fight against cancer. Huge silent machines, operated by remote controls, locate and destroy the tumours by Gamma radiations that could not be reached by ordinary surgical methods. If a weak solution of radio-active sodium is injected into a patient’s body, it can be timed as it flows round and round the intricate course of the blood stream by the turnstile clicking of a Gieger counter, placed say at his foot. Surgeons have found it of immense value in difficult operations, especially those involving amputation or the need to divert the bloodstream. Tracer atoms have played an important part in the separation of Siamese twins during recent years. Diseases of thyroid gland can be classified with the use of radio iodine which the gland absorbs far more speedily than do other tissues of the body. Given a small radio-active source and extremely simple equipment, radiographs can be taken in a few seconds in places where there is no electricity supply. Dentists have found that by wrapping a film round a patient’s jaw and exposing a weak “Gamma” source in his mouth, a perfect reproduction of all of his teeth can be obtained at once. Several years ago, a successful brain operation was performed in Sweden with a beam of protons. The operation was painless and was performed without surgical instruments with a patient continuing in a state of consciousness, without spilling a single drop of blood. Cost Researches and reports demonstrate that the shipping expenditures associated with energy resources are significantly less with regard to nuclear energy plants due to their use of pure dynamics of Uranium. Within the 1970s, these types of nuclear plants within United States had been more inexpensive in comparison with alternative sorts of energy generating plants. However, during 1980s, stringent governmental polices as well as objections and litigation with Environmental Protection Agencies increased the actual expenses associated with functioning of nuclear energy plants. Presently, in USA, the actual expenses associated with nuclear power are twice less expensive than the alternative means of energy production. United States is the leading country by having a maximum share of electrical power of the world as shown in Appendix-III on page 16. The next important benefit of nuclear technology would seem to be the supply of cheap electricity. The nuclear power provides a source of power which can be made available everywhere by the men in their homes, from the snowy wastes of Polar Regions to the sun-scorched deserts. Nuclear power plants develop the electricity over the fission process by involving either only Uranium or by the combination of Uranium and Plutonium where control rods deals with particular reactions to provide a sufficient amount of electrical power to heat up the standard water together with steam production. The particular heavy steam works over a wind turbine, which usually generates electrical energy. Though nuclear power evolved into far more suspect in the USA after the sad incident of the Three Mile Island in 1979, however, many professionals as well as environmentalists have started off plugging the encouraging effects connected with nuclear power pertaining to some other styles of energy as well e.g. resources of fossil fuel energy. Moreover, nuclear powers have come at a time when it is clear that the earth’s natural resources of stored energy (coal, oil, etc) cannot last much more than two hundred years. The world badly needs nuclear power and will need it more in the years to come. United States, Britain, the Russia, and even Pakistan have installed nuclear power stations to supply electricity. Thus nuclear energy is increasingly proving its importance in the field of industry. Agriculture Industry In Agriculture industry, nuclear radiation and radio-active materials are providing more accurate control in the production of better and cheaper articles. In agriculture, too, radiation is finding widespread use. Experiments are going on to make use of atomic energy for the laboratory production of vast quantities of fresh vegetable food stuffs to supply the undernourished populations of the world, to grow crops without fear of failure and harvest them without heavy labor, and to increase through radiation the field of farm crops and make them resistant to disease. Striking developments are taking place in the techniques of preserving food in all their freshness. Gamma rays are providing a valuable method of controlling pests. A sensational demonstration of this was given a few years ago when the island of Curacao was rid of the screw-worm fly. Efforts have successfully been made to destroy tsetse fly which spreads sleeping sickness in men and which is fatal to animals. Conclusion Over the years, the growing consumption of fossil fuel in nuclear power plants has resulted in several environmental concerns at global scale. Lack of effective management and pondering of less attention has given a further push to this global problem. Nuclear power is greatly contributing toward the increasing radioactive toxins in the atmosphere which adversely affects the human health, ecological systems, lands, agriculture and food, and the cleanliness of the air. Safety and security measures are required to be taken religiously by the governments, United Nations, and Environmental Protection Agencies. Indoor air pollution is also a major cause of increasing chronic bronchitis and other respiratory infections in poor urban households that depend on biomass for cooking particularly in winters. Although efforts have been made to do so at some parts of the world, however, it remained insufficient to prevent the air quality from deteriorating due to waste disposal of radioactive contents and accidents in nuclear power plants. The United Nations and EPAs are quite aware of the seriousness of nuclear power accidents and their discharge of radioactive contaminations into the air and making efforts to minimize their effects on human society all over the world. Strict compliance is needed to stop the destruction of bleats, the erosion of soil, the loss of wildlife, and the increasing use of gasoline and diesel fuels in these nuclear plants. How far they will succeed has yet to be seen, but at least the efforts are amplifying now. Anti-pollution laws and controls are needed to be enforced at governments’ levels. By adopting latest technology, the efficiency of nuclear power can be improved manifold. Building up of general public awareness can be the most vital step to maintain the nature’s balance and ultimately a survivor of the human life on the Earth. Appendix-I Nuclear Power Energy and the Environment (Source: www.world-nuclear.org) Appendix-II World Carbon Dioxide Emission (Source: US Energy Information Administration) Appendix-III Countries with Nuclear Electricity (Source: WNA, IAEA) References Diesendorf, Mark (2007). Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy, University of New South Wales Press, p. 252. Engber, Daniel. (Nov, 2006). How Gasoline Becomes CO2? A gallon turns into 19 pounds? Fact Sheet on the Three Mile Island Accident". U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Retrieved November 25, 2008. Fackler, Martin (June 1, 2011). Report Finds Japan Underestimated Tsunami Danger. New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/world/asia/02japan.html?_r=1&ref=world Ramana, M.V. (2009). Nuclear Power: Economic, Safety, Health, and Environmental Issues of Near-Term Technologies, Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 34, p.142. Schoof, R. (April 12, 2011). Japan's nuclear crisis comes home as fuel risks get fresh look. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/04/12/112048/us-begins-to-reconsider-nuclear.html Sovacool, Benjamin K. (2008). The costs of failure: A preliminary assessment of major energy accidents, 1907–2007, Energy Policy 36 (2008), p. 1806. Sovacool, Benjamin K. (Aug, 2010). A Critical Evaluation of Nuclear Power and Renewable Electricity in Asia, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Vol. 40, No. 3, p. 373. Sovacool, Benjamin K. (January 2011). "Second Thoughts About Nuclear Power". National University of Singapore. p. 7. http://www.spp.nus.edu.sg/docs/policy-briefs/201101_RSU_PolicyBrief_1-2nd_Thought_Nuclear-Sovacool.pdf Sprangler, M. (1974). Environmental and Social Issues of Site Choice for Nuclear Power Plants, Energy Policy 2, 18 (1974). Winter, Michael (March 24, 2011). Report: Emissions from Japan plant approach Chernobyl levels. USA Today. World Resources Institute. (1998-99). World Resources: A Guide to the Global Environment. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Read More