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Nuclear Energy and Environmental Issues

 

Next comes systems costs, meaning paid by the consumer or in many cases a government operated tax system that places that money aside if an accident were to occur[Eco14]. So all in all, nuclear power plant costs may be expensive in the start but once the energy is rolling, costs are far more efficient than alternative energy sources. .
             Which brings the comparison of nuclear energy versus alternative energy sources. Although nuclear energy is considered a nonrenewable energy source, nuclear energy creates a whopping amount of energy versus fossil fuels[Nuc131]. The energy released after fission is twenty thousand times greater than what coal would give off and the energy that one inch of uranium gives off would take nearly a ton of coal to produce[Nuc131]. Succeeding fossil fuels would have to be solar power due to the unlimited amount of sunlight given during a day's time, even on cloudy days. Even though the actual energy sunlight that transmits to solar panels does not produce hazardous waste, the production of solar panels created approximately twelve point five million pounds of hazardous waste between 2007 and 2011[Nuc131]. So in all actuality, nuclear energy is also more quantified than alternative energy sources. .
             Finally, the environmental issues that arise with nuclear energy is an ongoing topic. With all types of energy there is some environmental affect that happens, sometimes good and other times bad. With nuclear energy, the bad seems to outweigh the good for numerous reasons. One being that while the actual nuclear power plant itself does not emit fossil fuels into the ozone, but that when uranium is mined, enriched, and moved to the plants, fossil fuels are emitted into the air[Nuc13]. Next is the amount of water a nuclear power plant must use in order to keep production going and high levels of heat at maintainable levels. The amounts of water plants use is initially taken from surface water affecting fish and other aquatic life[Nuc13].


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