Nuclear Energy 4

Nuclear Energy Essay                                                       By Jungwoo Kang
Introduction:                                                                       Nuclear energy is one of the most common methods to create electricity in today’s world. It also is efficient and does not produce a lot of pollution. Furthermore, nuclear energy is also a very flexible source of energy, as it only requires the space to build a nuclear power plant. Electricity is created when a neutron collides into a nucleus inside the reactor core, where the nuclear reactions occur, and causes a chain reaction which results in a tremendous release of heat, this is called fission. This heat is then transferred to the water, which transforms into steam, then turns the turbine which turns the generator to create electricity. Also, nuclei can fuse, such as two hydrogen atoms to form a helium atom, which also releases a great amount of heat, which is nuclear fusion; an example of nuclear fusion is the sun. Nevertheless, nuclear energy has its pros and cons which differentiate it from other alternative sources of energy.
Advantages (Body Paragraph):                                                       Nuclear energy is an environmentally friendly and very efficient source of energy; it can achieve an average efficiency of 33%, which is slightly higher than coal power plants. Moreover, nuclear reactors do not release large amounts of harmful gases to the atmosphere. However, it does produce nuclear waste, but 99% of the radioactive waste can be recycled. There also are prototypes for nuclear reactors which can create more nuclear fuel than it can use, such as breeder reactors. These reactors are predicted to have efficiency greater than 45%. These reasons show nuclear energy is not only an efficient form of energy, but is also friendly to the environment.
Disadvantages (Body Paragraph):                                                     Though there are many advantages to using...