Nuclear power is one of the most efficient and safest forms of power generation. The construction costs of building a nuclear power plant are high, however its operating costs are cheap. The price of uranium is cheap to transport however, it is rare and must be transported to countries that do not have any. Even though uranium is rare and it is hard for developing countries to build a nuclear reactor and purchase uranium, nuclear power is the clear choice in power generation because it is one of the most efficient and cheapest ways to generate power, and nuclear power is much safer and more efficient than fossil fuels. A nuclear power plant can use two different types of generators …show more content…
Three Mile Island is located near Middletown, Pennsylvania, the reactor that partially melted down was Reactor Three Mile Island Unit 2. The day of the partial meltdown was March 28, 1979. The accident began in the non-nuclear part of the plant, something caused the main water pumps from sending water to the generators. The pressure began to increase, a valve that was supposed to close did not and the plant workers saw on the instruments that it was closed so they didn’t notice the partial meltdown. The radiation that resulted from this meltdown was not enough to affect the workers. After Three Mile Island many new regulations and requirements began to be introduced to nuclear power plants, including better training and more safety precautions (World Nuclear Association). Chernobyl was a much more devastating disaster that resulted in the deaths of multiple plant workings. It was caused by inadequate training and a bad design of the reactor. In April of 1986 a steam explosion caused part of the reactor core to fly into the atmosphere releasing it across Ukraine. The Chernobyl 4 reactor was the reactor that was destroyed during the accident. (World Nuclear Association) It …show more content…
Cost, safety, impact on humans, or the impact on aquatic life, according to the website Conserve Energy Future “Eutrophication is another result of radioactive wastes” (Conserve Energy Future).This is when a body of water become enriched in dissolved nutrients this stimulates growth of aquatic plants, this usually results in the depletion of dissolved oxygen. (Merriam-Webster). People also criticize nuclear power because they are afraid that it could explode like a nuclear bomb, this is not possible, the fuel is not enriched enough to explode (Word Nuclear Association). The concern that nuclear power is not safe is a large one, however there is a large amount of evidence showing that this is not true, some of this evidence includes that far fewer people have died from nuclear power related accidents than any kind of fossil fuel. The biggest concern for nuclear power is the disposal of nuclear waste, there are multiple types of nuclear waste, these include very low level waste, low level waste, intermediate-level waste, and high level waste. These four classifications for nuclear waste are classified by the amount of radioactive material is in the waste, VLLW contains a level that is harmless while HLW contains levels that could be lethal, the kind of waste that is HLW includes used fuel cells and separate waste from reprocessing the used fuel. (World Nuclear Foundation). Disposal of the nuclear waste is paid for by