Nuclear
fission Power.
Nuclear
power is a hot topic amongst people. It's like Marmite, you ether
love it or hate it. Personally I'm for nuclear power as opposed to
the other options available. The United kingdom is a small Island
with 64
894 610
people http://countrymeters.info/en/United_Kingdom_(UK)
living within it's boarders. We are at the moment dependant on
importing gas and coal to supplement our power needs. I think this
country needs to be able to provide a sustainable source of power to
meet the needs of a growing population that is not dependant upon
importing resources from country’s that may in the future decide to
restrict or cut off all together these supplies.
I
would like to hasten to add here that I do not see nuclear power as the
solution to our power needs but as a temporary stopgap, until we have
something that is also independent from the influences of foreign
powers that can cleanly and safely provide our power needs.
I
see two ways forwards from nuclear fission power, renewable resources
like wind, solar, wave, hydroelectric and geothermal are ones that
jump immediately to mind, can you think of any others? And the second
is still in the realms of science fiction but is being developed at
this moment which is nuclear fusion https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27944-china-spends-big-on-nuclear-fusion-as-french-project-falls-behind/
This as I understand it when the scientists have cracked the problem
of creating self-sustaining
fusion reactions,
will provide a clean and plentiful source of power which will allow
us to phase out the use of nuclear fission.
Until
then I feel it's right to support nuclear fission reactors, only by
supporting them can we overcome some of the problems caused by them.
Fast breeding reactors for instance can depose of the waste problem
by using spent fuel. Fast
reactors could
deal with the plutonium stockpile in Britain in five years.
“Spent
fuel remains a major radiological hazard for thousands of years. The
plutonium — the most ubiquitous and troublesome radioactive
material inside spent fuel from nuclear reactors — has a half-life
of 24,100 years. A typical 1,000-megawatt reactor produces 27 tons of
spent fuel a year. None of it yet has a home. If not used as a fuel,
it will need to be kept isolated for thousands of years to protect
humans and wildlife.”
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