Plutonium, Our Country's Only Feasible Solution
- Date Submitted: 01/28/2010 06:29 AM
- Flesch-Kincaid Score: 61.7
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Abstract:
Should we begin to manufacture one of the most destructive and infamous
substances on the face on the Earth once again? The engineers say yes, but
the public says no. The United States stopped making this element with the
ban on manufacturing nuclear weapons. But with the continuing problem with
our ever diminishing energy sources, some want us to begin using more
nuclear energy and less energy from natural resources. This paper is going
to discuss what plutonium is, the advantages and disadvantages of its use,
and why we should think about restarting our production of this useful
element.
After the United States dropped "Fat Man" and "Little Boy" on Japan ending
World War II, the public has had some type of understanding about the
power of plutonium and its devastating properties, but that is all anyone
heard.
After WWII, Americans started to think about what the atomic bomb could do
to the U.S. and its people. When anyone mentioned plutonium or the word
"nuclear" the idea of Hiroshima or Nagasaki being destroyed was the first
thing people thought about. No one could even ponder the idea that it
could be used for other more constructive things like sources of energy or
to kept a person's heart beating. Then we started to build more reactors
and produce more of the substance but mostly for our nuclear weapons
programs.
Along with reactors, sometimes comes a meltdown which can produce harmful
effects if it isn't controlled quickly enough. After such instances as the
Hanford, Washington reactor meltdown and the accident in the U.S.S.R. at
the Chernobyl site, no one wanted to hear about the use of plutonium. The
United States government banned nuclear testing and also ended the
production of plutonium.(Ref. 5) Now we are in a dilemma.
We are in need of...
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