Social Sciences Research Paper: Is Nuclear Power Safe for Humans?

Is Nuclear Power Safe for Humans?
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February 26, 2021
With our collective effort of saving our Earth from climate change, we humans search for ways of producing energy that is more efficient and eco-friendlier. One of the most significant discoveries of humans is the use of Nuclear Energy to produce sustainable energy. The nuclear plant utilizes Uranium, a silvery-grey metal that is highly radioactive, to create heat that causes the water to boil, making steam in the process. Although Nuclear Power sounds dangerous, it can save our Earth by reducing the carbon dioxide emission in the air caused by coal plants. With our current situation today, where our population is ever-growing and tons of infrastructure is being built, the need for electricity is excellent. In this article, the author will discuss why the question "Is nuclear power safe for humans?" and cite some outside sources to appreciate its benefit better.
Is Nuclear Power Safe for Humans?
Because Nuclear Energy is also used by the military for their Nuclear weapon because of its destructive power, people interpret it as dangerous and unstable. Although the above mention is actual, with careful handling of the substance, it can help the problems that our society faces today. Where is the search for low carbon emission energy at ever high rates to reduce the effects of climate change and make our world sustainable for future generations?
A nuclear power plant is mainly powered by a substance called Uranium, a heavy metal abundant on our Earth's surface, making it sustainable. It was discovered by Martin Klaproth, a German scientist, in 1789. The name Uranium is named after the planet Uranus CITATION Wor20 \l 1033 (World Nuclear Association , 2020).
Compared to our usual burning of coal and oil, which produce carbon emission, Nuclear Energy has zero-emission, making it ecofriendly. Also, the size of a common nuclear plant is only roughly the same as a football field.
According to the CITATION Wor \l 1033 (World Health Organization, n.d.) stated that 9 out of 10 people worldwide breathe polluted air, and about 7 million people die every year because of their exposure to polluted air. Polluted air is usually caused by burning fossil fuels that cause a lot of carbon footprint in the environment, where nuclear power is the contrast of this because Nuclear plants produce no carbon emission.
A nuclear power plant can produce 805 billion kilowatts that are enough to power 73 million homes. In the U.S, around 20% of the nation's electricity every year is supplied by commercial nuclear plants CITATION USD19 \l 1033 (U.S Department of Energy, 2019).
With all these benefits said above, why are we not using Nuclear power as our primary power supply? The reason for that is the lousy interpretation of people worldwide after the Chernobyl disaster on April 26, 1986, that took the lives of 31 on the initial explosion and followed by 50 deaths in the U.N. that are said to be caused by accident CITATION Ric19 \l 1033 (Gray, 2019). Although the explosion is caused by untrained personnel working at the plant, people still have a terrible Nuclear Power plant idea. When scientists discovered nuclear energy, they see a glimpse of the future where cars and technologies are powered by Nuclear energy.
* How a Nuclear Power plant Works
Perhaps to further understand how clean and cost-effective nuclear energy is to know how it works. Nuclear plants utilized Nuclear fission to heat up water, making steam that causes a turbine to spin and produce energy. The most common type of reactor today is the Boiling Water Reactor (BWR).
Nuclear power plants use Uranium for nuclear fuel. To better handle Uranium, they are processed into tiny pellets that are stack together inside sealed metal tubes called fuel rods CITATION USD19 \l 1033 (U.S Department of Energy, 2019).
The mechanism of a nuclear plant is similar to the means of a furnace steam generator. Fuel rods are file up together tightly inside the reactor fuel vessel and called fuel assemblies. This initiates the fission chain reaction where thermal energy is release CITATION Tho13 \l 1033 (Thomas Schwenke, 2013). Water also plays an essential role in the process of producing nuclear power.
Water is flowed inside the fuel vessel to keep the chain reaction going and, most importantly, to capture the thermal energy being released in the process. The water inside the fuel vessel can reach over 570 degrees Fahrenheit CITATION Tho13 \l 1033 (Thomas Schwenke, 2013). Even though that temperature is way past the water boiling point, the water inside the fuel vessel is not boiling because the pressurizer maintains the pressure of the water constant at estimated 160 bars CITATION Tho13 \l 1033 (Thomas Schwenke, 2013).
After the water is heated, it is sent to a heat exchanger known as the steam generator. Commonly these heat exchangers are in the form of a tube and shell bent to form an upside-down "U" where hot water flows CITATION Tho13 \l 1033 (Thomas Schwenke, 2013). Any water inside the heat exchanger will be boiled, and eventually produce steam, which is then sent to a set of pipes leading to the turbine building where it first drives a high-pressure turbine and then it usually fed to two low-pressure turbines CITATION Tho13 \l 1033 (Thomas Schwenke, 2013). These turbines are connected to a shaft into the electrical generator, which produces Alternating Current (A.C.) from the shaft rotation CI...