Global Issues and Globalization
Nuclear energy can be defined as a form of energy production that entails the utilization of nuclear reactions to release nuclear energy to release heat. The resultant heat is then used in various processes to produce electricity: often in heating water to turn it into steam which in turn drives turbines to produce electricity. One of the major advantages of nuclear energy is that it is relatively cheap. While the initial installation costs are expensive, the costs for the generation of electricity in nuclear reactors are cheaper compared to other processes such as coal and oil. Nuclear energy is a significantly low carbon-emitting energy source hence can be essential as a substitute for other processes that may pose a huge threat to environmental threat. Thirdly, while nuclear energy is not sustainable, the control of the atomic fusion can result in unlimited energy production with the potential of sustaining the global energy needs. Other than having a high potential of sustainability, the energy released from the nuclear fission processes has been approximated to be over ten million times larger than the amount of energy released in the burning of fossil fuel.
One major disadvantage of nuclear energy is the potential for human threats. Nuclear accidents are highly disastrous and with the potential of causing large scale damage to human beings and the environment. An example was the Chernobyl accident which resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of lives with millions of others struggling with health issues associated with nuclear waste. Nuclear power also poses a huge security threat to national security as it provides a suitable target for potential terrorist attacks. The uranium used in energy production can also be converted into a nuclear weapon by terrorists. Thirdly, while nuclear energy is associated with relatively low volumes of carbon emission into the atmosphere, other processes directly or indirectly associated with the energy production process may be harmful to the environment. Uranium mining processes, for example, often leave behind highly radioactive particles that may result in erosion and pollution if adjacent water sources. Underground uranium mining processes also expose the miners to large amounts of radiation while resulting in radioactive waste rock during processing. Lastly, while the maintenance costs for nuclear energy production are expensive, the initial construction costs are expensive costing up to ten billion dollars.