nuclear energy
Modern civilisation depends largely on energy. Without it our lives would be reduced to the level of a caveman?s. We would have nothing to power the equipment we rely on to get on with our daily lives. Life would in a way come to a standstill without energy. Without wood, we would not even be able to light fires for warmth or fire for cooking food. Our days would be spent huddling together in caves for warmth with only raw meat and vegetables to eat. This is a stark picture but it shows how vital energy is for human beings. Human progress has been closely linked to the discovering of new means of producing power. At first, man could only burn wood for heat. Later mankind learned how to use coal. By the 1700?s, we discovered steam and which has brought to the industrial revolution that launched mankind towards our modern technological society. Since then many ways of producing power have been developed ? including oil, gas, nuclear and solar energy. From the time mankind discovered energy till today, energy consumption has increased more than a hundredfold. The illustration below shows clearly the increasing energy consumption since the stone ages.
Resources needed to produce 1 million kilowatts of power 24 tonnes of uranium 3.1 million tonnes of coal Although the cost to build a nuclear power plant is very high, this is made up by cost of the production of power itself. A nuclear power plant is less expensive to operate than a fossil fuel plant mainly because that a nuclear plant uses a much smaller volume of fuel. With the heavy use of fossil fuels in today?s energy strategy, air pollution has become an increasing problem. A 1,000 MWe coal-fired power station produces about 7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, plus perhaps 200,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide which in many cases remains a major source of atmospheric pollution. Other waste products from the burning fossil fuels include large quantities of fly ash (typically 200,000 tonnes per year), containing toxic metals (substances that can cause cancer and genetic changes) as well as naturally-occurring radioactive substances. These pollutants have many effects on the respiratory system both long-term and short-term and can sometimes be fatal. Examples of diseases caused by air pollution are aggravated asthma, severe chest pain, gasping, aggravated coughing and chronic bronchitis. But children are the main concern of this problem. Because their respiratory system are still developing. They are more prone to these diseases than adults. Problems With Current Energy Resources
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1383
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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