This is a debate about Nuclear Power we had to prepare on the technology class.

1. 1
I.E.S. JAIME FERRAN
3º E.S.O
SUBJET: “Technology”
Maria POLO RODRÍGUEZ
(3º D)

2. 2
NUCLEAR POWER (AGAINST)
Index:
1. What is it? How is it generated? How much energy does it generate? How does it
work?
2. Is it useful? Is it a renewable energy?
3. Should we care about nuclear power?
4. Advantages and disadvantages.
5. Arguments against.
6. Bibliography
1. What is it? How is it generated? How much energy does it generate? How does it work?
Nuclear power is energy contained in atoms. It is generated by using Uranium (a metal
founded mostly in Canada or Australia). It produces around the 11% of the energy needs in the
world. It can produce a huge amount of energy from a very small amount of fuel. It produces
more energy and pollute less than burning fossil fuels.
It works by a chain reaction:
1. A reactor uses Uranium fuel which produces heat and generate nuclear fission.
2. Water is pumped through the reactor where it is heated making steam.
3. Steam moves turbines.
4. Turbines move generators.
5. Electrical power is created.
2. Is it useful? Is it a renewable energy?
Yes it is useful because the energy produced is very cheap (less than two cents per kilowatt-
hour, including: operation, maintenance and fuel).It produces renewable and clean energy. It
doesn’t pollute the air or produce greenhouse gasses. Power plants also can be built in rural or
urban areas and they do not alter the environment around them radically.
Nuclear energy is not usually considered a renewable energy although nuclear power itself is a
renewable source. This is because the material used in nuclear power plants (uranium) is not
renewable.
3. Should we care about nuclear power?
Yes, "so long as things are being done properly, I don't need to worry too much. The bit that
does worry me is the small amount of high-level nuclear waste from power stations. Although
there's not much of it, it's very, very dangerous and we have no way to deal with it apart from
bury it and wait for a few thousand years...”1
1
http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/nuclear.htm

3. 3
4. Advantages and disadvantages
ADVANTAGES
• Power plants do not need a
lot of space.
• Do not produce carbon
dioxide.
• Do not contribute with global
warming.
• Do not produce smoke
particles or other gases that
can cause acid rain.
• Is the most concentrated
form of energy.
• Low costs on transportation.
• Do not depend on weather.
• Produces small volume of
waste.
DISADVANTAGES
• Power plants have to be built near
large bodies of water.
• Cannot respond immediately to
demand.
• Disposal of nuclear waste is very
expensive because it must be
disposed somewhere where it cannot
harm the environment
• Nuclear power stations use water
from lakes or river to make turbines
move. This water is previously heated
up and then, after all the process, it is
released against to the lake or the
river but heated and with pollutants
that affects fish and other aquatic
beings.
• Nuclear accidents:
1. Harm cells of the body
making people even to die.
2. Genetic disorders can occur.
5. Arguments against
• Chernobyl disaster (1986): accident caused because of operation of a reactor
by badly trained people.
Two workers died the night of the accident and 28 people died few days after
because of radiation.
The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation
(UNSCEAR) said that apart from increasing thyroid cancers, "there was no
evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure 20
years after the accident."
• Nuclear waste can cause dead, cancer and genetic mutations and there is no
known way to contain it.
• The estimated cost of the accident in Chernobyl is around 350 billion dollars.
Monetary costs and human deaths will increase over the time because the
radiation caused permanent contamination to food, water and children.
• Uranium mining is done by indigenous people who do not have protection
cause them genetic disorders.
• Aquatic beings are killed with hot, contaminated water used in nuclear power
plants
• A nuclear accident was caused after an earthquake in Fukushima (Japan). Over
100,000 people had to be evacuated.

4. 4
6. Bibliography
http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/nuclear.htm
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136544/ernest-moniz/why-we-still-need-nuclear-
power
http://efacts.ca/2011/05/22/nuclear-power-most-useful-most-damaging/
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/nuclear-energy/?ar_a=1
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/non-renewable-
energy/?ar_a=1
http://www.cyberphysics.co.uk/topics/nuclear/advantages_disadvantages_nuclear_power.ht
m
http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-and-you/affect/nuclear.html
http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/nuclear.htm
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Safety-and-Security/Safety-of-Plants/Chernobyl-Accident/
http://www.nirs.org/nukerelapse/background/toptenreasons.htm