Nuclear Power

A comparison on the pros and cons of nuclear fuel when identifying possible energy resources

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  • Created by: George
  • Created on: 27-09-13 23:28

Nuclear Power

Advantages

  • Nuclear fuel is readily available which means that it would reduce the pressure from fossil fuel supplies hence conserving resources and increasing the ability of a country to switch between energy sources. This would also reduce the price of the fuel because of excess supply in the market; offering cheap and affordable electricity.
  • It doesn't release any Carbon Dioxide emissions. This therefore prevents the green house effect and so this means that it helps to stop global warming. This therefore has more confined effects on the environment and so this means that nuclear fuel helps to maintain environmental programmes and biodiversity.
  • Nuclear fuel is a reliable energy source as it is constantly available meaning that it can provide consistent benefits and so this means that the energy output can be raised in peak periods. This means that energy production is constant allowing developed regions such as the UK, or developing regions with growing populations, to have flexibility if there is a sudden demand for energy.
  • Nuclear fuel releases the same amount of energy in 1 gram as fossil fuels in 8 kg. Therefore this means that significantly less nuclear fuel has to be reacted to produce the same amount of energy. this therefore conserves our resources and so this means that fewer power stations have to be built. This means that nuclear fuel can be the most efficient

Disadvantages

  • Nuclear power stations require a lot of time and money to commission and decommission (because of the high safety precautions needed) and so this means that it can drain money from a country and can require a lot of energy meaning that the overall benefit from lower costing fuel may be disregarded.This is because the total quoted energy requirements are considerate of set-up costs as well.
  • It produces radioactive waste which is difficult to dispose of. This can contaminate an environment and so can lead to long term exposure to ionising (electron removing) radiation (irradiation). This can also mean that workers have to be constantly checked for signs of irradiation and so this means that it can be time-consuming and difficult to monitor a population
  • As the UK has limited amounts of nuclear fuel, it can cause it to become reliant on imports which can reduce the stability of a government and so therefore lead to the government becoming vulnerable to cost-push inflation (see my other resources under "government objectives")
  • It can lead to the stockpiling of Uranium which can lead to it becoming vulnerable to terrorist access which may place additional pressure on the safety of the population. Even so, this is unlikely and the secure storage of uranium can deter this effect. This may therefore be an example of the perceived risk to a population being higher than the actual risk.

Evaluation

This means that it is difficult to evaluate the influence of certain disadvantages in reality as much of these views are only perceived as being high due to the unknown scepticism associated with nuclear fuels. Therefore whether or not nuclear fuels should be used depends on whether you view the economic reliability of these fuels on a wide amount of people as more important than the slight risk of contamination and health effects on a small population surrounding the plant. 

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