Nuclear Power

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Nuclear Power

Advantages

  • Its fuel is readily available, and is highly unlikely to run out for thousands of years, meaning it is renewable for the time being.
  • Due to the lack of carbon dioxide produced, there is no contribution to global warming.
  • Very large amounts of electricity can be produced per kilogram of fuel used.

Disadvantages

  • The costs of building and decommissioning a nuclear power plant are very high, making the electricity produced very expensive.
  • Nuclear reactors produce highly radioactive waste which remains dangerous for millions of years. It must be buried very deep underground.
  • A nuclear reactor has a very slow start up time, meaning it takes a very long time to increase or decrease the amount of energy being generated.
  • There is a constant risk of an accident that potentially could result in the release of highly radioactive material into the environment.

Evaluation

Nuclear power is a very controversial method of generating electricity due to some of its massive disadvantages. Around 13% of electricity currently comes from nuclear reactors, and there are plans to build more in the future because the fuel (plutonium and uranium) will not run out for a very long time, despite the high risk of extremely radioactive material being released. 

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