What are the hazards of nuclear power generation?

Under normal circumstances, nuclear power plants are harmless to people and usually do not leak. But once a nuclear leak occurs, the harm will be very great. Nuclear radiation mainly produces gamma rays, which can induce radiation sickness. Common symptoms include fatigue, dizziness, insomnia, skin redness, ulcer, bleeding, alopecia, leukemia, vomiting, diarrhea and so on. Sometimes it will increase the incidence of cancer, distortion and hereditary diseases, thus affecting the health of generations.

With the consumption of energy in the world, the energy crisis has become a major problem facing all countries in the world. Countries all over the world are looking for new energy sources to deal with the military energy crisis, including solar energy, wind energy and other energy sources. Most energy sources can only solve the energy problem in a short time, and nuclear energy is used by all countries because of its large reserves and cleanliness. However, while solving the energy crisis in various countries, nuclear energy has also caused various hazards to the environment and society. It is particularly important to use nuclear energy correctly, especially rationally.

1 Advantages of nuclear energy

1), nuclear power generation does not emit huge pollutants into the atmosphere like fossil fuel power generation, so nuclear power generation will not cause air pollution. Nuclear power generation will not produce carbon dioxide that aggravates the global greenhouse effect.

2) Uranium fuel used for nuclear power generation has no other uses except power generation. There are abundant nuclear resources in the world, such as uranium, thorium, deuterium, lithium and boron. The world's uranium reserves are about 4,654,380+700,000 tons. The energy provided by nuclear fuel resources available for development on the earth is more than100000 times that of fossil fuels. The application of nuclear energy has many advantages as an economical and effective measure to alleviate the world energy crisis. First of all, nuclear fuel has many advantages, such as small size and large energy, and nuclear energy is millions of times more than chemical energy.

3) The energy density of nuclear fuel is millions of times higher than that of fossil fuel, so the fuel used in nuclear power plants is small and convenient for transportation and storage. Because the transportation of nuclear fuel is small, nuclear power plants can be built near the most needed industrial areas. At the same time, a small amount of radioactive substances such as uranium, titanium and radium in coal will also fall around the thermal power station with the smoke and dust, polluting the environment. Nuclear power plants have set up layers of barriers, which basically do not emit substances that pollute the environment, and even radioactive pollution is much less than that of coal-fired power plants.

4) In the cost of nuclear power generation, the fuel cost accounts for a low proportion, and the cost of nuclear power generation is not easily affected by the international economic situation, so the power generation cost is more stable than other power generation methods.

3. Disadvantages of nuclear energy

1), nuclear fission chain reaction must be completed to produce nuclear energy. Once nuclear fission is out of control, it will produce neutrons and radioactive substances harmful to human body and environment. There have been many nuclear accidents around the world, which have caused great harm to the ecology and people. Some environmentalists believe that nuclear energy is not a safe energy source compared with other renewable energy sources.

2) Although the used nuclear fuel is small in size, it is extremely radioactive. If it is not handled properly, it is likely to have a fatal impact on the environment and life. Nuclear waste just coming out of a nuclear reactor can be killed in less than a minute. The radioactivity of nuclear waste can not be eliminated by general physical, chemical or biological methods, but can only be reduced by the decay of radionuclide itself. The half-life of these radionuclides is tens of thousands or even millions of years, so this process is very long. With the increasing number of nuclear power plants in the world, the threat of nuclear waste to the natural environment is increasing. How to dispose of nuclear waste safely and permanently will be an important problem for scientists all over the world.

3) The investment cost of nuclear power plants is too high, and the financial risk of power companies is high. In addition, the thermal efficiency of nuclear power generation is low, so it emits more waste heat to the environment than ordinary fossil fuel power plants, so the thermal pollution of nuclear power plants is more serious.

4), the construction of nuclear power plants is more likely to lead to political differences and disputes, because the use of nuclear energy itself is controversial, for domestic, it is easy to cause people's dissatisfaction with the government and increase public panic. The construction of nuclear power plants sometimes requires people to leave their homes, which will also lead to differences between environmentalists and politicians. For the international situation, it will also lead to tension between countries.

5) The tremendous lethality of nuclear weapons makes people shudder. This poses a great threat to the peaceful development of countries without nuclear weapons and all mankind.