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Should We Continue to Use Nuclear Power?

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Submitted By vicko
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Should we continue to use nuclear power?
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear processes to generate useful heat and electricity. The use of nuclear power has become more and more common in the world. Many countries like the United States and France have utilized nuclear power for electricity production for a few decades. Many nuclear power plants in various countries have been under construction. However, many serious nuclear accidents, for example Chernobyl disaster and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster have occurred continually from the past to the present. Some people argue whether we should continue to use nuclear power for electricity production.

It is well-known that using nuclear power for electricity production has many advantages. From the dimension of environmental aspect, nuclear energy has the lowest influence on the environment. Nuclear energy is emission-free so a nuclear plant will not emit any hazardous gases during the process of electricity production. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide and other gases which threaten the atmosphere by causing photochemical smog will not be emitted. Also, carbon dioxide and any greenhouse gases which result in global warming will not be emitted. In the whole nuclear power production cycle, there will be only small quantities of waste produced. And all the wastes and by-products produced are safely kept in the container. Also, water discharged from a nuclear plant will not contain harmful pollutants as the water used for cooling the reactor never contact with the radioactive materials. Moreover, a nuclear plant only requires a relatively small construction area. From the dimension of economic aspect, the electricity production from a nuclear power plant is very efficient. The operation cost of a nuclear plant is relatively low. Since uranium used as a fuel in a nuclear plant is a relatively abundant element in the

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