Nuclear energe

 Nuclear Energy

What do you think about nuclear energy? Do you think it's dangerous? Do you think it's helpful? Hello, my name is Oh hyun Seo from Violet class.

Today, I'd like to tell you about the nuclear energy's merits and demerits. And, I hope you would have time to think about nuclear energy's two sides.

  These days, there are many issues about the nuclear energy. In Japan, recently the radiation leakage accident happened at nuclear power plants by the great earthquake on March 11, this year. Many people are still trying very hard to prevent melt down and stop the radiation leakage from the power plants.

  As you know well, a nuclear power plant at Chernobyl exploded and burned in 1986. At that time the nuclear reactor's pressure was much higher than usual and 'melt down' happened because of a failure in the system.

'Melt down' is a situation which the fuel rods start melting and radiation starts to escape. When 'melt down' happened in Chernobyl, thyroid cancer increased explosively among young children and 7000 people died form the nuclear accident. So, many environmentalists oppose the construction of nuclear power plants. In addition, even if we can make nuclear power plant safely, we don't know how to get rid of nuclear wastes yet. And, It's not easy to keep nuclear wastes because of NIMBY syndrome.

  Then, what is the happy and helpful way of using nuclear energy?

As society develops, more and more energy is needed because almost everything needs energy. One of the energy is Fossil fuels such as petroleum and coal which is a common energy. Unfortunately, fossil fuels release toxic substances, especially carbon that is one of the biggest causes of global warming and green house effect. Furthermore, the fossil fuels are limited and running down. To solve these problems, many scientists conceived alternative energy.

  Now, you might have recognized why I'm talking about the alternative energy. Yes. Nuclear energy is one of the alternative energy. We can produce a lot of nuclear energy with no harm effect to nature. Uranium makes nuclear energy when it fissions and we need only small amount of uranium to make nuclear energy. 1g of uranium is same as 9drums of petroleum or 3tons of coals. Can you imagine how powerful it is? Also, nuclear energy hardly releases carbon and it's becoming popular as green energy. You might think, 'We can use solar energy, wind energy or other energy.' Yet, solar energy and wind energy is not enough as we need more and more energy like I have said. Therefore, nuclear energy is useful because we can make lots of it and it is green energy.

  Did you know that there are other uses of nuclear energy?

With radioactivity, we can heal cancer. Radioactivity isotope that has a lot of gamma rays is used for diagnosing cancer because gamma rays have character of going through. And, radioactivity isotope that has a lot of beta rays are used for killing cancer cells.Like this, nuclear energy is also helpful to modern medical science.

  Nuclear energy also gives influence to food productivity. We can protect foods from toxic substances by doing radiation irradiation. Is it harmful to food because the food is exposed to radiation? According to scientists, if they control the amount of radioactivity, there are no harm. ???Also, they can transform seeds of food. They are making rice that is strong at wind or rice that can have lots of seeds. If they develop seeds of food, they will be able to help hungry people across the world.

  Nuclear energy is very dangerous for us, but also very useful. I think we have to study and develop the nuclear energy. Who knows? I might become a great nuclear physicist. When I become nuclear physicist, I will improve nuclear energy and make it safer. Then, nuclear energy will be true green energy that delivers happiness all around the world.

My dear teachers and friends, thanks for sparing your precious time for me.