About nuclear energy... (nope, nothing here about weapons)

Recently, the government decided to bad nuclear energy because it could cause damage to people with radiation, and if it um… it’s safety systems were to fail, then there could be a huge problem. However, on the other side, as I said before in my last blog post (https://pburbine.wixsite.com/parc/blog/heat-the-new-terrorist-who-killed-27-people-injured-2200-people-and), it is really hot outside, so people need electricity to turn on air conditioners, fans, etc to keep the heat away. Also, nuclear energy is the source of electricity that just happens to be the source that produces the most electricity. So, this might or might not be a great idea.

First of all, nuclear energy is pretty dangerous. For example, have a look at the chernobyl incident (what’s with the spelling?) , when on April 26, 1986, technicians conducting a test inadvertently caused the fourth reactor to explode, resulting in a blaze that burned for 10 days and sent a plume of radiation around the world. Also more than 50 reactor and emergency workers were killed at the time, and thousands of people had to leave their homes because of the radiation. As you can see, this was a huge incident, if you google “chernobyl” up. Also, the radiation from the nuclear plants can harm people and wildlife. And even if you could quarantine the area, it would be a waste of land that could be used to build other sources of electricity, like solar panels, or wind turbines. So, nuclear energy might not actually be needed at all.

However, nuclear energy might actually be good. These accidents like chernobyl are not that common at all. They aren’t like car crashes, like three thousand people dying each day, it’s more like asteroids hitting the earth. Very uncommon. Also, the radiation given by nuclear reactors is rather really small. Even if you lived in the 50 mile radius of a active nuclear reactor, you would only receive 0.01 millirem per year. Oh, and also a quick fact, even bananas have more radiation than 0.01 millirems, they have 2.6 millirems, if you ate one per day. (google up”how much radiation does bananas have”) So, you would have to live in 50 miles of a reactor, for 26 years, to substitute eating one banana per day. But it’s okay, since the average person receives about 500 millirems per year, and still survives. So, it would be highly impractical to ban nuclear reactors because of the radiation that they produce, because in that sense, bananas, brazilian nuts, plane trips, microwaves, and also, people should be banned. Also, alternative energy sources do not produce much electricity compared to nuclear sources, so it’s not like nuclear energy could be replaced.

My opinion of this topic would be that the government should not ban nuclear energy. It’s not even harmful, like I mentioned (remember the bananas?). Also, it’s not like korea has electricity to spare anyway. Because so much people are using air conditioners due to the hot weather, there is a lot of electricity needed, and I don’t think this is the great timing to ban the number #1 source of electricity when there is so much electricity needed. Still, there is risk of a huge disaster, so instead of banning nuclear energy, what about making the power plants safer and have less accidents. I think that would be a way better solution.