One World Essay- Nuclear Energy
Nuclear energy is mostly considered as a useful source of energy, but it can also be a huge problem for the world. The following essay will be discussing about the advantages and disadvantages of using Nuclear Energy and also discuss on how it helps and affects our both environmentally and politically.
Before nuclear energy was created, coal was one of the main sources used to create energy. It is also used now but using coal creates many major problems for example like how coal-burning can produce acid-rain, sulfur oxide discharges, carbon dioxide emissions, hazardous wastes and many other problems. These problems made many scientist concerned about the future ways of accessing energy therefore they started to research on a different way to produce energy without hurting the environment.
In the 20th century, the pursuit of nuclear energy for electricity generation began after the discovery of how radioactive elements can release extremely large amounts of energy. But later on in 1930’s, the discovery of nuclear fission started when James Chadwick discovered the neutron. A few years later, Enrico Fermi and some other collaborators discovered that, if various elements are bombarded together by neutrons, then new radioactive elements are produced. In 1939, chemists found that a uranium nucleus, having absorbed a neutron, could split and release energy into two parts, in which one part is called barium. The discovery of nuclear fission was bad because this meant that atomic bombs would be created because the atomic bomb and nuclear reactors work by fission. Evidence of how nuclear fission could be useful and dangerous was when Albert Einstein stated in a letter that “The element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy.” and warned that the Germans may use atomic science to create “extremely powerful bombs of a new type.”
After World War II, the use of atomic energy finally changed and was used for good and...