Introduction

Since oil price has gone up and climate change is core issue nowadays, alternative energy resources are no longer alternative but imperatively necessary resources. It’s been long time that many people trying to find and create new alternative resources. Common alternative resources are wind, solar, nuclear, biofuel, hydrogen, geothermal energies. Among those resources, nuclear was issued by the accident in Japan and people believe that nuclear is no longer safe alternative resources.

The arguments are based on pros and cons of using nuclear energy resources. It will show what is alternative resources and why do we need. Also, it will discuss about the reason why nuclear resources are still needed and advantages and disadvantages of using nuclear energy.

Finally, it will discuss about whether the nuclear energy can be changed to other alternative energy resources or should be or still needed in the future with personal opinion.

What are Alternative Energy Resources?

According to the oxford dictionary, it said “energy fuelled in ways that do not use up the earth’s natural resources or otherwise harm the environment, especially by avoiding the use of fossil fuels or nuclear power.

The reason why alternative resources are needed is close relationship with global warming effect as using of natural resources such as fossil fuels which are caused increasing emitting of carbon dioxide. Fossil fuels are limited so that cannot use it forever and needed to be replaced to other alternative resources could be one of the most important reason but it seems global warming is became more important to human nature nowadays. Therefore, alternative energy should be no or less carbon emission and renewability.

Solar energy - Solar energy is the energy received by the earth from the sun. This energy is in the form of solar radiation, which makes the production of solar electricity possible.

Biomass energy - Biomass Energy is defined by any organic materials that can be burned and used as a source of fuel.

Wind energy - Energy received from the movement of the wind across the earth. This energy is a result of the heating of our oceans, earth, and atmosphere by the sun.

Geothermal energy - the heat contained within the Earth that generates geological phenomena on a planetary scale.

Hydroelectric energy - Hydropower is using water to power machinery or make electricity.

Nuclear energy - Nuclear energy originates from the splitting of uranium atoms in a process called fission. At the power plant, the fission process is used to generate heat for producing steam, which is used by a turbine to generate electricity.

Advantages of Nuclear Energy

Nuclear reactions release a million times more energy, as compared to hydro or wind energy. Hence, a large amount of electricity can be generated. Presently, 12-18% of the world's electricity is generated through nuclear energy.

The biggest advantage of this energy is that there is no release of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, chlorofluorocarbon) during nuclear reaction. The greenhouse gases are a major threat in the current scenario, as they cause global warming and climate change. As there is no emission of these gases during nuclear reaction, there is very little effect on the environment.

The burning of fossil fuels result in emission of the poisonous carbon dioxide. It is a menace to the environment as well as human life. There is no release of carbon dioxide at the time of nuclear reaction.

Nuclear reactors make use of uranium as fuel. Fission reaction of a small amount of uranium generates a large amount of energy. Currently, the high reserves of uranium found on Earth, are expected to last for another 100 years.

High amount of energy can be generated from a single nuclear power plant. Also, nuclear fuel is inexpensive and easier to transport.

Disadvantages of Nuclear Energy

This energy can be used for production and proliferation of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons make use of fission, fusion or combination of both reactions for destructive purposes. They are a major threat to the world as they can cause a large-scale devastation.

Though large amount of energy can be produced from a nuclear power plant, it requires large capital cost. Around 15-20 years are required to develop a single plant. Hence, it is not very feasible to build a nuclear power plant. The nuclear reactors will work only as long as uranium is available. Its extinction can again result in a grave problem.

The waste produced after fission reactions contains unstable elements and is highly radioactive. It is very dangerous to the environment as well as human health, and remains so, for thousands of years. It needs professional handling and should be kept isolated from the living environment. The radioactivity of these elements reduces over a period of time, after decaying. Hence, they have to be carefully stored. It is very difficult to store radioactive elements for a long period.

The Chernobyl disaster that occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 in Ukraine, was the worst nuclear power plant disaster. One of the nuclear reactors of the plant exploded, releasing high amount of radiation in the environment. It resulted in thousands of casualties, mostly due to exposure to harmful radiation. One cannot deny the possibility of repetition of such disasters in future.

Nuclear VS Alternative Resources

People argue that Nuclear energy was touted as an unlimited panacea, destined to be so cheap the electric companies wouldn't even put meters on houses but since the Nuclear reactor disasters in Japan from the Tsunami, nuclear energy is limited. It looks similar to fossil fuel problems. For the first time, everything looks fine and good. The price of power was so cheap that they do not even meter it but This optimism and excitement was soon tarnished, however, as the hazards, environmental costs, and the dangers of what was released along with energy from inside the uranium atom became apparent. 

 

 



In spite of these problems, many people still believe that nuclear power is one of the key energy resources because alternative resources also have weak points. Since the alternative resources are too much depending on nature, it is limited. For example, wind energy needs huge lands and it can be used when there is wind. Small countries cannot provide lands. Solar power also cannot use at night and when weather is not sunny, cannot be used.

Both resources are limited and not perfect solution for the future energy. Therefore, they are more complementary relationship.

 

Conclusion 

Nuclear power resource is one of the popular ways of getting energy. It can generate a lot of energies with small amount of uranium. There is no emission of carbon dioxide. It has competitiveness compare with other alternative resources as it costs less and does not need too much land to build power plants. However, because of recent Fukushima disaster, it became an issue again that still not safe enough and caused radiation exposure accident.

Alternative resources could be the future energy but still long way to go because of the limits which is too depending on nature. However, there are many ways to have alternative resources. For example, solar, wind, geometric, hydrogen and waste can be the source of energy.

For the first time when I research alternative resources, I thought alternative resources are better than nuclear power energy because it has too much risk but as long as I research about the nuclear and alternative resources, both sources are not the adversarial relationship but complementary relationship. Before the perfect alternative resource technology, nuclear power is still key resource that we can use. Even though, it also needs to provide safer protection system for the exposure of radioactivity.

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