The Issues of Nuclear Energy - Essay Example

The problems that plague nuclear energy revolve around the materials it uses to create energy. Uranium is highly radioactive once it has depleted all of its impurities which are needed to power up nuclear reactors. Inside a nuclear reactor, the radioactivity is increased more than a thousand times as the quantity of uranium is changed to a mixture of different irradiated elements. Most, if not all, of these radioactive elements, are very hazardous to human beings because such materials are highly unstable to certain elements in the environment that either cause unexpected and damaging combustion or radioactive exposure or poisoning. The damages that could result from all this destroy not only the environment greatly; it also destroys human lives and welfare as well.

There are many different ways through which people could be exposed to radiation such as inhalation of radioactive gases or particles, some radioactive elements found in the soil or water, and eating or drinking food, water, or dust that are contaminated. Some radioactive elements mimic normal chemical elements in the ecology and make blend in with the food chain, poisoning the whole ecosystem. In contemporary and even recent human history, two events show such sort of damage and hazards the risks of nuclear energy can do. First, there was the Chornobyl Accident in 1986 in Pripyat, Ukraine. Then, there was the Fukushima Nuclear Reactor in North Japan in 2011.

In 1986, the Chornobyl Nuclear Reactor had a catastrophic explosion that destroyed the power facility and caused massive amounts of radioactive materials to spread throughout Europe, especially seriously damaging life and the environment of what was then the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics or USSR. A forum by the International Atomic Energy Agency or IAEA (2005) stated that “the vast majority of about 5 million people residing in contaminated areas of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine currently receive annual effective doses from the Chernobyl fallout of less than 1 mSv in addition to the natural background doses” (p.13). There is also a 20-mile exclusion zone around the destroyed reactor due to high levels of radiation found in the area, and there was a long period of environmental damage due to the fallout.

Also recently, in 2011, an earthquake and tsunami in Japan caused the Fukushima Nuclear Plant to be severely damaged beyond repair. Although not as horrific a disaster as that of the Chornobyl Accident, the leaking of the nuclear reactors at Fukushima cause grave concerns. In his article in the Medicine and Global Survival series, McCoy (2011) said that “there are many lessons to be learned from Fukushima, not least of which is to recognize that nuclear energy is exceedingly dangerous and carries unacceptable, unnecessary risks to human health and the environment” (p.44).

Indeed, the incident of the Fukushima Nuclear Plant made many governments of various nations, and different energy advocacy groups, review the use and weigh the scales on the use of nuclear energy. Should it be worth the risk of lives and the environment for a stronger yet equally hazardous use of energy? Some nations, various societies, and many energy organizations have now been pressed harder with such questions. Read More