Monday, June 7, 2010

Almost Done!!!

The thing I found most interesting was the Nuclear Power topic actually. Though we didn't spend much time on it, it was a topic that I wasn't exposed to much so I enjoyed learning about it. I saw that the instructor had a hard time explaining the concept of E=mc^2, and even through all the blank stares he got from my classmates I thought he did a really good job explaining a actually very complex subject. Nuclear energy is a crazy/genius idea hasn't been really expanded on since the late 1950's, but who can tell what key it will have to our future.
I did research into the reason why it hasn't been developed more and found that the fear after WWII that extensive research might lead to wide spread nuclear weapons put such ideas to rest. On the site www.Nuclearpoernow.com they say they will be able to reprocess nuclear waste into energy, if this is possible nuclear energy has less drawbacks than other energies. With this the only fear would be the use of the knowlegde to create weapons which would devistate the world, because if one country decided to use them, then we all would.

Nuclear Energy

After reading the information in the article I have the same basic opinion, which is that nuclear power is a far better energy source than petroleum products but is very harmful to the well being of our planet. It produces a lot of power but the radioactive waste would devastate the earth if it was widely used. Eventually we (humans) will be back at the same point as we are now but instead of thinking about global warming it will be problems such as large areas of uninhabitable space because of the number of decommissioned power plants that will undoubtedly grow. In the article it says "it's a fallacy to say one energy source is better, and that we should use it everywhere", and I believe this statement is true because, all energy comes from some where petroleum is the energy from organisms that die centuries ago but someday it will be all gone every energy has such a drawback the source can't continue forever. The article also states that technological advances are likely to make nuclear power less expensive and less carbon intensive, I thing this is good but they state nothing about methods of disposing of the waste. Generally whatever actions we take on this energy topic won't be good for the earth and shows that majorly people don't care as long as their lights are on.