A Term Paper in Physics entitled

Nuclear Energy: Good or Bad?

Can you define nuclear energy and nuclear power? How

well are you knowledgeable about this matter? Or does it came
from and how it was discovered and created? Do you know its
advantages and disadvantages? Let us answer the questions for
you.
When we heard the terms or words - Nuclear Power and
Nuclear Energy, usually the first things that come to our minds
or for most peoples minds are bombs, destruction of countries
and other places like cities and states, war, and deformed humans
or people dying because of its harmful effects on us.
In fact, there are four things that occur the least in
the nuclear power field. Nuclear power is more than just bombs
and destructions. Bombs barely even take up a percentage of the
total amount of the nuclear energy used in the world today.
Almost all of the nuclear energy used nowadays comes from the
form of the production of electricity. Nuclear power plants are
responsible for 16% of all of the worlds electricity production;
which really may not sound or seem many or a lot for us. But,
when you are thinking about the amount of electricity consumed in
our world, it really puts it into a prospective on how vital
nuclear power is for all of us. The reason why nuclear power is
such a vital role in our society is that, it is largely because
of the global warming trend or matter, and the fact that nuclear
power is cleaner and more environment friendly than the other
forms of energy produced. It is just one of reasons why nuclear
energy is a growing trend today. Nuclear energy is also a very

simple energy source to come by or with. It is produced through a

very tedious and meticulous process that when it is controlled,
it is very powerful; and if not, it is extremely dangerous. This
is why; its energy source is much regulated. But imagine the
without it where can we possibly be?
Nuclear energy, specifically the nuclear power, is not
just formed off of some radioactive charged materials like when
it is portrayed or interpreted in some simple-minded television
shows that we usually see. In fact, it comes from a very tedious
and meticulous process called nuclear fission. Nuclear fission is
a process by which a slow-moving neutron is absorbed by the
nucleus of a uranium-235 atom, which in turn splits into fastmoving lighter elements (fission products) and free neutrons.
This process creates massive amounts of energy in forms of gamma
rays, and in the form of kinetic energy. Nuclear power plants
perform this process within their nuclear reactors, where they
can use its kinetic energy to heat water that flows through the
reactor into steam. At which point the steam will rise and spin a
turbine that creates the supply of electricity sent out to us humans.

Despite the high level of sophistication of the safety

systems of nuclear power plants the human aspect has always an
impact. Facing an unexpected event or managing a nuclear accident
we don't have any guarantee that decisions we took are always the
best.

Two

good

examples

are

Chernobyl

and

Fukushima.

The

Chernobyl nuclear accident is, by far, the worst nuclear accident

in the history. Different wrong decisions during the management
of the nuclear plant caused a big nuclear explosion. Referring to
the Fukushima nuclear accident, the operations done by the staff

were

highly

questionable.

Fukushima

nuclear

accident

is

the

second worst accident in the history. The main disadvantages of

it are the following: difficulty in the management of nuclear
wastes, it takes many years to eliminate its radioactivity and
risks, the constructed nuclear reactors have an expiration date.
There

are

also

countries

producing

nuclear

energy

that

can

maintain a regular number of operating reactors. They've built

about 80 new nuclear reactors during the next ten years. Nuclear
plants have a limited life. The investment for the construction
of a nuclear plant is very high and must be recovered as soon as
possible, so it raises the cost of electricity generated. In
other words, the energy generated is cheap compared to the cost
of

fuel,

but

expensive.

the

Nuclear

recovery
power

of

its

plants

construction

are

objectives

is
of

much

more

terrorist

organizations. Also, not many countries have uranium mines and

not all the countries have nuclear technology, so they have to
hire

both

things

overseas.

Probably

the

most

alarming

disadvantage is the use of the nuclear power in the military

industry. The first use of nuclear power was the creation of two
nuclear bombs dropped on Japan during World War II. This was the
first and the last time that nuclear power was used in a military
attack.

Later,

several

countries

signed

the

Nuclear

Non-

Proliferation Treaty, but the risk that nuclear weapons could be

used in the future will always exist.
In the Chernobyl disaster, there was a huge destruction
and lives taken. The extensive damage was in the main reactor
hall and turbine building causing a chain reaction in which, a
total nuclear melt-down occurs where it becomes too hot inside
the reactor and it splits and releases radiation into the air.
This situation has only occurred once in the history of nuclear
power production, and the scars it left on the earth will be seen

for many years to come and will never be forgotten. It happened

in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It is located near the city
of Pripyat in North Central Ukraine. On April 26, 1986, the
situation

described

earlier

was

played

out

to

tee.

The

explosion shot radioactive fallout so far up that it was recorded

to have landed in just about every Northern Hemisphere Continent.
To this day radioactivity can still be traced in the area, so
much so that the remains of the explosion have yet to even be
cleaned up. The Chernobyl disaster is thought of as being the
worst nuclear power accident ever and rightfully so. The meltdown resulted in the evacuation of over 336,000 people, and
resulted in 56 direct deaths, with 9,000 possible deaths within
20 years due to radiation exposure. The effects of this disaster
were tremendous, but it also showed us how easy this stuffs we
are playing could turn into a catastrophe.

However, nuclear energy is mainly used for the

production of electricity in nuclear power plants and has several
disadvantages; it still has a lot more uses or advantages that we
do not know. These are the following: it is mainly used in
development
automation

and
and

process
quality

improvement
control

in

to

the

the

measurement,

industrial

sectors;

Radiopharmaceuticals, and radiation therapy techniques for the

treatment of malignant tumors, teletherapy for cancer treatment
or radiation biology to sterilize medical products are used;
controlling

insect

pests,

the

best

use

of

water

resources,

improved crop varieties or in the establishment of the conditions

to optimize the efficiency of fertilizers and water; reduces the
environmental and health consequences of large-scale employment
of fossil fuels, and has a better contribution compared with
other

techniques,

solving

problems

such

as

the

"greenhouse

effect" and acid rain; and also used as dating, which applies the
properties of carbon-14 fixation to bone, wood and organic waste,
determining chronological age, and applications in geophysics and
geochemistry, which exploit the existence of naturally occurring
radioactive materials fixing dates of rock, coal an oil deposits.
Somehow, the reason why nuclear power is such a big
rave is mostly due to the heightened costs of crude oil and other
energy producing products. The initial cost of a nuclear plant is
very high, but within the lifetime the costs saved by the use of
nuclear power rather than say oil or coal will have paid itself
off.

Also,

speaking

of

coal

and

oil,

the

amount

of

harmful

emissions released into our atmosphere is very large compared to

the amount released by a nuclear power plant. In fact, this is
one thing that nuclear power plants pride themselves the fact
that they do not produce any environmentally hazardous emissions.
This is a huge factor, especially today where the Green House
Effect and Global Warming are two of the biggest topics in
todays society. Everywhere you look there are people out there
trying to think of new and improved ways to clean our earth, to
save it from the harmful emissions we release into the air with
our cars and our field sprays well here is definitely one.

As you have read in our term paper, you have known

certain things about this matter. We conclude that:
Today, the nuclear energy and power is a small majority
of

us

all.

Through

the

process

of

nuclear

fission

we

have

electricity, smoke detectors, nuclear bombs, and much more. Plus

with the production costs of nuclear energy being so much more
reasonable it makes everything just that much easier for us all.

In our own opinion, we think that we should stop using the

nuclear energy and power plants for the production or supplying
our

needs.

Because,

it

has

several

hazardous

effects

and

disadvantages not just on us, human beings, but also on our

nature and animals beings and others. Also, think of the events
nowadays in our world, with all of the terrorist acts going on
around the world today it causes major concern in the way that a
nuclear power plant is a very easy target that could and would
cause much destruction should it be terrorized. There is really
no defences against a terrorist attack on a nuclear power plant,
and there is no way to stop the immense amounts of radiation from
it exploding into the air. It would be absolutely catastrophic,
anything and everything within a certain radius would be subject
to overwhelming amounts of radiation exposure, and would most
certainly die. So you see our concerns with nuclear power plants
today. Due to the very unstable nature of fission in general, let
alone

nuclear

fission,

these

are

the

main

set

backs

to

the

production of energy through nuclear power.

However, certainly nuclear power is not something to just
mess around with because it can and will turn on you in an
instant, but with evolving technology and understanding, we will
someday be able to tame to great power of nuclear fission to the
point where we may be able to use it in everyday life.

REFERENCES:

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/non-power-nuclearapplications/overview/the-many-uses-of-nuclear-technology/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power
http://www.world-nuclear.org/imagelib/index.php
http://science.howstuffworks.com/nuclear-power.htm
http://web.mit.edu/nuclearpower/
http://nova.nuc.umr.edu/nuclear_facts/history/history.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/nuclear-power-pros-andcons/2005/09/09/1125772675462.html
http://www.nei.org/

Manuel V. Gallego Foundation Colleges, Inc.

Cabanatuan City
Basic Education Department

A Term Paper entitled

Nuclear Energy: Good or Bad
(A Requirement for the subject of PHYSICS IV)

Submitted by: (IV-NARRA)

Angelica Rico
Patrick James Labrador
Roberto Hufano III
Submitted to:
Mr. Mark Angelo de Jesus
(Subject teacher)