A Reflective Analysis of Nuclear Power|Dylan DiLecce
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AY
2009
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UCLEAR
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DiLecce 1
The Nuclear Option: A Reflective Analysis of Nuclear Power
By 2030, global energy demand will surge sixty percent, leaving the world with a gap of $20 trillion worth of energy investments to fill.
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Although it might seem reasonable to think thatsuch a gap can be filled, it is not reasonable to think that it can be filled with current energypractices. With carbon emissions and scarce resources, petroleum-based energy sources arebecoming an extremely outdated way to effectively power the world. But with the void of surging electricity production
and the void of a new major energy source, the world‘s nations areleft with a very critical question: ―What will power our future?‖
One of the most powerful devices of the obliteration of life is one of the most powerfuldevices of the creation of power. This intensely powerful device is nuclear energy, and it sparksa powerfully intense debate over whether it is an effective energy source. After seventy-fiveyears of development, nuclear power now represents about
fifteen percent of the world‘s
electricity production.
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Originally, nuclear power was poised into creation by the developmentof the atomic bomb.
Some of the world‘s grea
test minds such as Enrico Fermi, Albert Einstein,and J. Robert Oppenheimer, along with 175 000 other contributors, worked on the ManhattanProject. From 1942 to 1946, the Manhattan Project acted as the driving force behind developingnuclear weapons technology, and thus the nuclear power industry. It was the largest scientificand industrial effort undertaken in human history and has since created a new way of thinkingregarding energy manipulation, and unfortunately, political manipulation.
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Out of the Cold Warcame new nuclear technology that became known as a dream energy source for the future. In
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Share The World's Resources ,
Key Facts- Energy
2
United Nations, International Energy Agency, Key World Energy Statistics (New York: United Nations, 2007) 16-17.
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―Manhattan Project,‖
Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, 2005 ed.
DiLecce 2
1954, less than ten years after the development of the atomic bomb the USSR developed the firstnuclear power plant in Obninsk.
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As the technology progressed, more countries began producingelectricity through nuclear power plants. Through the need for a regulatory commission, theInternational Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, was developed. Today there are thirty countrieswith nuclear power stations, and a total fifty-six countries with some type of nuclear reactor.
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Nuclear technology for power generation has reached far passed its original military intentions.
Today nuclear energy powers some of the world‘s largest tanker ships, submarines, and cities.
However, the energy source has also been powering a heated debate over the future of its usage.Future instability in fossil fuel production and global energy insecurity are driving the
world‘s politicians, scientists, and cit
izens to effectively choose new main energy sources for thefuture. The current issue of peak oil along with driving environmental concerns over energyproduction using fossil fuels has created a situation where global energy policies must adoptalternative major energy sources to help subside political, environmental, and economicproblems for the future. Although alternative energy sources such as wind and solar power seempromising, they are technologies still in development. Nuclear energy on the other hand, is wellestablished and is in large-scale use in countries such as France and South Korea
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. Nuclearenergy is poised
by many to be the world‘s future major energy source, but many more question
its practicality. While nations such as the United Kingdom are considering nuclear as a majorenergy source for their future, other nations such as Germany are considering scaling back theirnuclear power interests. The key
driving issue that encompasses every nations‘ consideration of
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World Nuclear Association ,
Nuclear Power in Russia
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World Nuclear Association
, Nuclear Power in the World Today
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United Nations, International Energy Agency, Key World Energy Statistics (New York: United Nations, 2007) 16-17.
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