After reading my fellow classmate, Alec Hubble’s, blog post about nuclear energy, I got to thinking. First of all, I didn’t even know that the government had passed the law concerning alcohol’s requirement to be radioactive. I understand where he’s coming from; all this fear and tension concerning radioactivity and nuclear energy is quite bogus. We seem to jump to conclusions that all things nuclear are bad, harmful, uncontrollable, etc. However, Alec makes good points concerning past nuclear accidents. He explains all the factual evidence concerning the events, most pointing to “operator error,” or faulty equipment, not the reactions themselves.
Nuclear power is a substantial source of energy we us today; according to Alec Hubble’s article, about 20%. Also, if the waste is contained, it is not harmful to the environment: it leaves no carbon footprint like coal or natural gas. We are making leaps and bounds toward innovating and improving how we extract and use nuclear energy, trying to be as efficient as possible.
One thing I am worried about, though. All the radioactive waste that is made from nuclear reactions has to go somewhere. Although we haven’t reached our maximum capacity for waste containment, it is a real possibility. It would be cruel of us to make it the problem for future generations, on top of everything else we are forcing on them. We should come up with a way to better dispose of our radioactive wastes today instead of pushing it off as a problem for the future. There are catalysts available to speed up the breakdown process, and there are also elements that break down faster than others. Nuclear research is a necessity in our world today; hydroelectricity is another alternative to our fallbacks of coal, oil, and gas. The research industry will be in need of employers and funds soon, if not already. I believe the energy crisis should be a high priority of our government, and it isn’t getting the attention it needs.
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