This nuclear disaster was a series of equipment failures – nuclear meltdowns – releases of radioactive materials at the ‘Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant’.…
Eugene Robinson, author of “No Fail-Safe Option”, writes during the recent destruction of the Fukushima power plant, cautioning the use of nuclear power, and touching on the Chernobyl incident. He claims that the idea of nuclear energy, in spite of its benefits, is not worth the destruction and damage it could potentially cause.…
In Eugene Robinson’s article, “No Fail-Safe Option,” he addresses that nuclear power is beginning to look like a “bargain with the devil” (Robinson 226). Robinson, a journalist for The Washington Post, aims his article at the Chernobyl disaster and the unlikeliness of the Fukushima crisis ending with the same result. Even though Japanese engineers struggle to keep the catastrophe from escalating even higher, Robinson says we cannot ignore the fact that nuclear fission is “inherently and uniquely toxic technology” (226). He points out that the “most powerful earthquake in Japan’s recorded history” began a declining chain of events, starting with system…
Over centuries humans have always continued to try and find new ways of converting one form of energy into one which humans can manipulate for their own use. One of the most recent forms of converting energy, which is gaining in popularity is nuclear energy. With 14 percent of the world using it today it is a viable alternative to burning fossil fuels. To give you a basic idea on how the process of converting energy works according to the Canadian Nuclear Association is as basic as, “splitting the uranium atom to generate the heat that is used to produce steam for the production of electricity”(www.cna.ca). However things do not always run so smoothly, and the leakage of the nuclear material could have devastating consequences to both the land and its inhabitants. One of the bigger well know events of this nature, came from the power plant Chernobyl. To put simply it is a plant that exploded releasing nuclear waste into the atmosphere. Although this is detrimental to the environment the significance behind this event is because of this accident, we have now learned from our mistakes and are taking more precautions so that history is not repeated. I will prove that history will not be repeated through some background knowledge of the plant, what happened during the meltdown and how it effected the land and inhabitants, and finally what insight we have gained from this event and its significance to history.…
Many people around the world ask themselves what are the disadvantages of adopting an alternative solution to solve the consumption of global nuclear energy? Based on what we have experienced through events with major disasters and the aftermath of many casualties, it has summed up to result in having failures outgrowing expectations. Therefore, global nuclear power usage is to be opposed due to the fact that it comes with high financial costs, nuclear waste management complications, and the fact that thousands in populations are mass numbers of casualties.…
As everyone knows, nuclear energy can release nuclear radiation which can kill human’s cells and serious radiation can cause death. Furthermore, radiation can result in genetic variation. Radiation also has nuclear residue. It is hard to clear, may be more than 50 years can disappear. Such as Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, now is a ghost town, no one can live in there because of the radiation residue.…
This article goes further in depth by using an "examination of the casualties and medical problems that resulted from the Chernobyl nuclear explosion" to reveal the political and scientific viewpoints. It discusses the controversy surrounding the death toll and the impact of the radioactivity on the nation's water supply.…
Near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in March of 1979, a reactor malfunction resulted in the release of radioactive material into the atmosphere. The automatic release valve malfunctioned, which prevented water from entering the system and cooling the reactor core. This incident is considered the worst disaster in U.S. nuclear history (Gale). However, from this incident we learned more about how reactors work, the environmental impact, and the health consequences of radiation exposure.…
As the severity of the global warming threat attains universal recognition, the United States must look for ways to decrease its reliance on fossil fuels for electricity production. The combustion of fossil fuels such as oil and coal to generate electricity produces carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that lead to a variety of environmental problems. Nuclear power, on the other hand, is a comparatively clean source of energy. Though still widely employed, concerns over security of stored waste and a public distrust of reactor safety—fueled by the incidents at Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986, and the paranoia behind the sensational but popular film The China Syndrome—have led to calls for the decommissioning of older plants in current operation. However, it makes little sense, economically and in terms of energy capacity, to decommission plants currently in operation. Conversely, the environmental superiority of renewable sources of energy, the problem of storage of nuclear-waste, nuclear energy’s risks and dangers, and the high expense of nuclear power due to high construction costs and enormous funding for incremental research make the construction of new nuclear power plants an impractical means of decreasing the United States’ reliance on fossil fuels for electricity.…
Through the nuclear timeline there has been dozens of accidents that have cost several innocent lives. With examples such as the Chernobyl incident in 1986 that affected nearly five hundred…
Flyers, ads, and people are telling us we need to stop littering and recycle to clean and care for our planet. Those things do help, but I think there are worse things our planet is being exposed to than just trash. Nuclear power plants, that we created, are being used for energy all over the world and we are not thinking about the repercussions they might bring. We are gambling with our sensitive planet and our lives. What if something like Fukushima happens again, and even worse, what if it happens like in Chernobyl? Do we as the human race want to take that chance? What could this do to our health? The author of “Nuclear Power is Not the Answer” states, “no dose of radiation is safe, and all radiation is cumulative. Each dose received adds to the risk of developing cancer or mutating genes in the reproductive cells” (Caldicott, 44). Caldicott also thinks, “80% of cancers that we see are caused by environmental factors, whereas only 20% are inherited” (Caldicott, 44). All governments and all corporations around the world need to put a stop to harmful material being created and exposed. It needs to be stopped not only for our plant, but also for our lives and…
A mutation is a type of change that happens in our DNA sequence. Some of the most common mutations are, a duplication where a body part is copied one or more times. Some more common mutations are a deletion where the number of DNA bases are changed, and another common mutation is an insertion where more DNA bases are added. A nucleotide mutation repeats short DNA sequences a number of times in a row. A substitution is where one or more bases in the DNA sequence is replaced by the same number of bases.…
Throughout human history, there have been and continues to be scandals and cover-ups made by the government and city officials to save their own behinds. Where have all the honest people gone? No matter what the case maybe, money and a good reputation seem to prevail over the cost innocent lives. In 1959, Rocketdyne, a rocket-testing company in the Santa Susana Hills of Simi Valley had a meltdown. Although Rocketdyne representatives deny that the incident caused any type of harm, the truth is, the meltdown contaminated the area and is responsible for hundreds of cancers and health illnesses.…
Yablokov, A. (2009). Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.…
A First-Hand Account of Japan's Nuclear Crisis Katsumi Furitsu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Young doctors speak out on the Fukushima disaster . . . . . . . . . . .40 Japan’s Nuclear Nightmare Ronald McCoy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 “A terribly difficult situation with a lot of uncertainties”: PSR Press Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 What may we learn from Fukushima? Frank Boulton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 Radiation in medicine and in nuclear power plants: the same but very different Andreas Nidecker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 Children, Teens and the Japan Disaster Harry Wang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63…