What is the Right Energy Source?

Thomas Campbell, Blog #3

Is nuclear energy good or bad? There are many opinions on the topic and many arguments and good points that support both sides. Nuclear Energy Policy is a blog post written by Wan Zamzuri Wan Hasenan. It is a blog post about nuclear power and also about what various countries think of it. The post outlines what nuclear policies often consist of, examples of what they would include are efficiency standards, safety regulations, emission standards, legislation on energy trading, and transport of nuclear waste and their storage. The post also includes and talks about the major fears on the topic of nuclear power. He uses the disaster in Chernobyl in 1986 as an example of what could happen, he talks about radioactive waste and the concern about the disposal of the substance, he talks about the fear of nuclear terrorism, and the high cost of making the power plant. In general, the blog post talks a lot about the fears of nuclear power, but very little on the benefits of it. Besides the fears, the opinions of many countries on the topic of nuclear power are also discussed, France along with many other countries are for nuclear energy, but Australia, Ireland, and a few more are strictly against nuclear energy.

Overall, the piece of writing has more points against the use of nuclear power and does not give enough information on the benefits of nuclear power. There is a vast amount of well-known knowledge that supports the use of nuclear power plants and the author only includes a small fraction of it. It is a biased piece of writing and therefore is an unreliable source of information. It appears as if the purpose of the blog post is to scare people away from nuclear energy rather than to inform people about it, like it should be doing.

Realistically, nuclear power has a lot of benefits that sometimes get overlooked because of the fear that has been forced into the minds of the public. If nuclear power was really as bad as people said it was, then there would be no argument and nuclear power plants would most likely not exist anywhere in the world.

People worry about nuclear power being extremely expensive, but if you look at the alternatives, so are many other sources of energy. Solar power, hydropower, wind power, and many other renewable sources of energy are also very expensive to set up and operate, so the choice is either pay money or pollute the earth. Nuclear power plants also produce many new jobs that would give a boost to the economy; this is needed especially in recent times. People also wonder about the controversy of mining uranium, which is needed in order to undergo the nuclear reaction, but stable and reliable countries like Canada and Australia mine the valuable element. One of the largest fears that people have of nuclear power is that it is very harmful to the environment, one of the worst possible things that you could do. The opposite is actually true; nuclear power is really not that bad for the environment compared to many other sources of energy. No CO₂ is produced in production of nuclear electricity. The giant smokestacks are actually cooling towers and the smoke that they emit is actually steam, which we all know is not harmful to the environment in any way. Radioactive waste is produced because of the process, but not a significantly large amount is produced, especially not enough to deserve the fear that it possesses. Coal and fossil fuels produce massive amounts of greenhouse gases that are very harmful to the environment. Hydro dams destroy the wildlife around it by creating a lake and flooding the surrounding area. It also disrupts fish migration, which can be detrimental to the fish if the breeding areas are upstream from the dam. In perspective, nuclear power is not actually that bad for the environment compared to many other energy sources.

In conclusion, of the information that the blog post contained, for the most part was solid and relatively unarguable. Although, the blog post did not show the whole picture, it merely talked about the bad things relating to nuclear energy. There was a very small amount of information concerning the good things about nuclear energy in the post. It appears as if the author was making the argument that nuclear power is bad and should not be continued, but he does not provide enough information and evidence to show the whole picture, which makes his argument biased and unconvincing.

References

Hasenan, Wan ZW. "Nuclear Energy Policy." WZWH. 28 Oct. 2010. Web. 11 Nov. 2010. .

Holland, Andrew. "The Nuclear Energy Debate in Germany and the US | The Energy Collective." An Energy Policy, Climate Change, and Alternative Energy Community | The Energy Collective. The Energy Collective, 20 Oct. 2010. Web. 11 Nov. 2010. .