Nuclear Energy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Nuclear Energy - Essay Example However, nuclear energy has both advantages and disadvantages that should be evaluated in order to gauge the worth of utilizing it. Electricity production cost has proved to be a barrier to developing countries, and the nuclear energy could be a solution to this problem. Comparing uranium to other products of energy production such as coal and oil, it is evident that small quantities of uranium are needed to produce an equivalent amount of energy by either coal or oil. Uranium is available at cheap prices and the costs of procurement and transportation are relatively low. The costs of running and maintaining an industry manufacturing electricity using uranium are cheap as compared to those of coal that require regular maintenance and hence a high cost implication. Experts say that a nuclear plant that is in good functionality can run uninterrupted for up to 540 days (Beth, Advantages and Disadvantages of Nuclear Energy, LoveToKnow, Green living). One of the major keys of marketing is the ability of the manufacturer to gain consumer confidence .in the year 1979 incident of a partial meltdown of a reactor was reported, and this gave rise to a lot of critics about the safety of nuclear plants. As compared to coal burning plants, the nuclear plant is safer since the reactors are contained in concrete structures of large thickness unlike those of coal that often burst. Another safety advantage of the nuclear energy industries is the availability of a passive system that does not require a person to shut it down in occurrence of a malfunction. Environmental conservation is of great priority to any project, and so is the nuclear project (Burgess, 10 Pros and Cons of Nuclear Power, Grab life by the globe, Energy). The process of power generation using the nuclear project releases relatively low amounts of carbon dioxide among other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere since nuclear power plants don’t smoke. Nuclear waste is