Global Citizenship

Community Action Project

Group A (101)

Violet Kortequee (L)

Naziha Zeghir
Wisdom Massaquoi
Josephine (JoJo) Karim
Nathan Bio

Nuclear Energy
What is Nuclear Energy?
Nuclear energy is a form of energy released from the nucleus, the core of atoms, made up of protons
and neutrons. This source of energy can be produced in two ways: fission – when nuclei of atoms
split into several parts – or fusion – when nuclei fuse together.

What is nuclear fission?

Nuclear fission is a reaction where the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei,
while releasing energy.
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Good Impacts of Nuclear Energy

Low carbon

Unlike traditional fossil fuels like coal, nuclear power does not produce greenhouse gas emissions
like methane and CO2.

Nuclear advocacy group the World Nuclear Association found that the average emissions for nuclear
are 29 tonnes of CO2 per gigawatt hour (GWh) of energy produces. This compares favourably with
renewable sources like solar (85 tonnes per GWh) and wind (26 tonnes per GWh) and even more
favourably with fossil fuels like lignite (1,054 tonnes per GWh) and coal (888 tonnes per GWh).

Nuclear produces roughly the same or less emissions as renewable sources so could be considered
an environmentally friendly source of energy.

Not intermittent

US President Donald Trump famously decried wind energy for its intermittency, saying: “When the
wind stops blowing, that’s the end of your electric.” The consistent criticism of renewable energy
like wind and solar is that they only produce power when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining.

Nuclear, however, is not intermittent, as nuclear power plants can run without any interruptions for
a year and more without interruptions or maintenance, making it a more reliable source of energy.

Cheap to run

Nuclear power plants are cheaper to run than their coal or gas rivals. It has been estimated that even
factoring in costs such as managing radioactive fuel and disposal nuclear plants cost between 33 to
50% of a coal plant and 20 to 25% of a gas combined-cycle plant.

The amount of energy produced is also superior to most other forms. The US Department of Energy
(DOE) estimates that to replace a 1GW nuclear power plant would require 2GW of coal or 3GW to
4GW from renewable sources to generate the same amount of electricity.
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Bad Impacts of Nuclear Energy

If it goes wrong…

Anti-nuclear campaigners will cite the three major nuclear meltdowns of recent times, Three Mile
Island in 1979, Chernobyl in 1986 and most recently Fukushima in 2011.

Despite all the safety measures in place these nuclear plants, different factors caused them to go
into meltdown, which was devastating for the environment and for local inhabitants who had to flee
the affected areas.

The official immediate death toll for Chernobyl was reported as 54 people, although this is
consistently disputed, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) established a figure of
4,000 projected deaths in the longer term. Is the potential of nuclear power worth the risk of
powerful radiation leaks, mass evacuations and billions spent in repairs?

Nuclear waste

One side effect of nuclear power is the amount of nuclear waste it produces. It has been estimated
that the world produces some 34,000m3 of nuclear waste each year, waste that takes years to
degrade.

Anti-nuclear environmental group Greenpeace released a report in January 2019 that detailed what
it called a nuclear waste ‘crisis’ for which there is ‘no solution on the horizon’. One such solution was
a concrete nuclear waste ‘coffin’ on Ronit Island, which has begun to crack open and potentially
release radioactive material.

 Expensive to build

The initial costs for building a nuclear power plant are steep. A recent virtual test reactor in the US
estimate rose from $3.5bn to $6bn alongside huge extra costs to maintain the facility.

South Africa scrapped plans to add 9.6GW of nuclear power to its energy mix due to the cost, which
was estimated anywhere between $34-84bn. So whilst nuclear plants are cheap to run and produce
inexpensive fuel, the initial costs are off-putting.
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Can the world be powered by nuclear energy?

Nuclear power is often hailed as a magic bullet solution for the rapid and large-scale decarbonisation
of our societies which we all know needs to happen if we have any hope of mitigating the worst
effects of the unfolding climate emergency. Among politicians and industry groups, it is consistently
favoured over meaningful investment in renewable energy systems, bolstered with misleading
claims of its safety, efficiency, stability, and speed of deployment.

With the costs and efficiency of renewable energy solutions improving year on year, and the effects
of our rapidly changing climate accelerating across the globe, we need to take an honest look at
some of the myths being perpetuated by the nuclear industry and its supporters. Here are six
reasons why nuclear power is not the way to a green and peaceful zero carbon future.

 1. Nuclear energy delivers too little to matter

In order to tackle climate change, we need to reduce fossil fuels in the total energy mix well before
2050 to 0%.According to scenarios from the World Nuclear Association and the OECD Nuclear Energy
Agency (both nuclear lobby organisations), doubling the capacity of nuclear power worldwide in
2050 would only decrease greenhouse gas emissions by around 4%. But in order to do that, the
world would need to bring 37 new large nuclear reactors to the grid every year from now, year on
year, until 2050.The last decade only showed a few to 10 new grid connections per year. Ramping
that up to 37 is physically impossible.

2. Nuclear energy is too slow

Stabilising the climate is an emergency. Nuclear power is slow. The 2021 World Nuclear Industry
Status Report estimates that since 2009 the average construction time for reactors worldwide was
just under 10 years, well above the estimate given by the World Nuclear Association (WNA) industry
body of between 5 and 8.5 years. The extra time that nuclear plants take to build has major
implications for climate goals, as existing fossil-fueled Plants continue to emit CO2 while awaiting
substitution. The construction of a nuclear plant is a long and complex process that obviously
releases CO2, as does the demolition of decommissioned nuclear sites.

3. Nuclear energy generates huge amounts of toxic waste

The multiple stages of the nuclear fuel cycle produce large volumes of radioactive waste. No
government has yet resolved how to safely manage this waste. Some of this nuclear waste is highly
radioactive and will remain so for several thousand years. Nuclear waste is a real scourge for our
environment and for future generations, who will still have the responsibility of managing it in
several centuries.
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Community Action Project Answers

How is nuclear energy used?

it is used to power warships they are they use it to power whole cities and countries, and it helps
save the planet by reducing carbon emission.

How does nuclear energy impact the environment?

Nuclear energy impacts the environment in various ways such as nuclear energy produces
radioactive waste as well as it’s affecting climate change and causes various side effects that affect
humans, animals and so on which in turn is causing ice caps to melt and therefore sea levels rising
which forms a major threat towards the environment.

What are the most continuous issues surrounding nuclear energy?

health disorder because these will be increased in cancer cases because of the radioactive waste

the biggest issue right now is the radioactive waste and pollution nuclear safety environmental
injustice and the cost of nuclear energy

it can also cause mass loss and destruction and damage the soil

What does nuclear energy mean for the world?

it will be a game changer for climate change because nuclear energy is the cleanest form of energy
to ever exist

Does the world have the expertise to implement nuclear energy globally?
there are not enough specialists that know how to handle energy that will cause a lot of casualties
and will kill millions