Alternative Energy/Nuclear Power question.?
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at
12:14 am
I am doing a speech and I need some help!
What is a common problem of having nuclear power, and what would be a good alternative energy for it?
THanks for taking time to read!!!!
Tagged with: Alternative • Energy/Nuclear • Power • Question
Filed under: Renewable Energy
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Common problems with nuclear: costs many times more to build the plants than traditional coal plants (tough on customers’ pocketbooks); possible terrorist targets; question of what to do with spent nuclear fuel (look up info. on the Yucca Mountain Repository); strong NIMBY reaction from people when trying to site one; some states have laws against siting new nuclear plants.
The only viable alternative to nuclear right now in this country is coal. Natural gas as a fuel in power plants is extremely volatile in cost; no one wants to deal with the up and down costs fluctuations. Wind/solar/biomass/”green” energy cannot provide the amounts of power necessary to replace 24/7 plants like nuclear, coal, and natural gas. Hope this helps.
The largest drawback to nuclear power is what to do with the spent fuel rods which are composed of highly radioactive Uranium 235. U-235 has a half-life of 713 million years so safe permanent storage of spent fuel is expensive and endlessly controversial. Scientists worldwide agree that the safest way to manage these materials is to dispose of them deep underground in what is called a geologic repository, such as Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The concept revolves around permanently isolating the spent fuel in steel and ceramic containers, then burying them in deep underground sites with no groundwater to be contaminated and essentially sealing them in a chamber forever.
Alternatives to nuclear do not have this storage and radioactivity issue, but also have their own drawbacks.
Coal – Has a high carbon footprint and produces greenhouse gases. However the US has an abundant supply of coal and the energy production technology is simple.
Natural Gas – Much cleaner than coal but still emits some greenhouse gases and the price of natural gas is is becoming more and more expensive. There is still a good supply of natural gas in the US.
Wind – Once the capital investment in equipment is made, the resulting energy from wind is essentially free. The technology is improving every year and it is an efficient way to produce electricity. However, wind speeds and directions are not constant so reliability of supply is always a question.