Let's Get Nuclear | Teen Ink

Let's Get Nuclear

May 16, 2016
By Whitetailph98 BRONZE, Cannon Falls, Minnesota
Whitetailph98 BRONZE, Cannon Falls, Minnesota
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Fukushima Japan 2011 8:11am. A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck 22 miles of the shore of Fukushima which ended up not doing any damage to the nuclear reactors. What really did the damage was the 15 meter high tsunami that shut down the power supply and cooling of the reactors. Without the coolant systems active, the reactors went into meltdown. After this terrible accident people were very scared about nuclear reactors and if we should use them anymore. We need nuclear energy. I think we need a lot more reactors.


Nuclear energy makes up 10.6% of the world’s energy. France is almost at the point where the only power they use is nuclear. 67.9% of France’s energy is all nuclear. How would it feel if someone just walked in. Making them shut down all of their powerplants and go back to coal? France has spent billions on their nuclear program and now we're just going to make them stop. I totally agree with France saying we need more nuclear reactors because they produce a lot of energy. Nations have spent billions on the research for better ones, and we need more electricity because with more research comes bigger and better tools that will need more power.


Eventually we all know that we’re going to need more power, the world is getting bigger and bigger every day. 353,000+ babies are born each day. With that many babies we all can tell that we’re going to need more power. Nuclear energy is one of the cleanest ways we produce energy. They are efficient, have zero harmful gas emissions; this to me looks like one of the best ways to produce energy.
   

The biggest concern is the price for one of these nuclear reactors. A tier 1 reactor costs as much as 2-9 billion dollars, but they produce so much energy the they make back that money about a 10-20 years depending on the economy. Now it might be expensive, but think about the economy. Making more nuclear reactors would open up a ton of jobs for us, “every reactor creates about 700 permanent jobs, building this reactor creates 3,500 jobs during construction” says NEI on February 12, 2015.


Disasters like Fukushima will happen again but we just need to use that as a learning experience. We need to bounce off and create safer reactors, reactors that will instantly shut off if anything happens. Maybe one day we will find a way to produce energy more efficiently but as of now I think it’s best if we stick to nuclear reactors.



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