[Last Name] 1

Hannah Rodríguez

3 ESO 22/23

14/2/2023

IS NUCLEAR POWER THE SOLUTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE?

In this report I will summarize the debates we previously had on the 8th and the 9th of February

about the downsides and positive thoughts we had about nuclear power plants and if it is worth

the risk of inverting in them. The classroom was divided in two groups: the ones in favor of

building power plants to provide electricity and the other group debating whether their idea is not

the best.

For starters I will start with the basics; what is a nuclear power plant and what is its purpose.

It all starts in the nucleus (or core) of an atom, where energy holds the atom form, so you can

come to understand that it holds a strong and powerful power, in fact, that force is known as the

“strong force”. With this energy we can create electricity, throughout a process called “nuclear

fission”, I will explain it better in a few seconds. Therefore, a nuclear reactor/power plant, are

machine which create nuclear fission to have energy. Back to the process of nuclear fission, it is

the procedure where the nucleus of an atom splits then releasing energy. So, the purpose is pretty

simple, nuclear power plants are a way of creating electricity without producing any greenhouse

gasses and create renewable, clean energy.

 [Last Name] 2

Now that you know why are they important, I am going to take you inside of what a typical

nuclear power plant looks like. The main component of a nuclear power plant is the nuclear

reactor, which contains the nuclear fuel (which is usually uranium, since it is easy to break it)

and has systems that make it possible to start, sustain and stop the nuclear reaction in a controlled

manner. I have simplified the process in four steps;

1 - The uranium fission takes place inside the nuclear reactor, which then releases a large amount

of energy that heats the water circulating at a very high pressure. This water is transported

through the primary circuit to a heat exchanger (steam generator) that produces water steam.

2 - The steam is then transported to a generator via a second unit

3 – Then the turbines move in a really fast speed and that energy is transformed into the

electricity we use to power homes, schools, businesses, or hospitals.

4 - When the water steam goes through the turbine it is sent to a condenser to cool off and

become liquid water again. And the whole process starts again.

Most power plants contain; fuel (as I said before), a moderator (slows down the neutrons

released from fission to create more fission, usually water, or heavier water or even graphite),

control rods or blades (control elements in the reactor it can also make it stop the reaction
 [Last Name] 3

whenever necessary), and last but not least safety elements (used to prevent the leak of

radioactivity to the outside).

There are different nuclear power plants, and they each work their own way, however, there are

80% of the nuclear power plants of the 450 units in the world are; pressurized water reactor

(PWR) and boiling water reactor (BWR). As the name indicates, the reactor in PWR units is

pressurized water instead of boiling water which is used in BWR units. Nevertheless, there more

such as; gas-cooled reactor (GCR: AGR and Magnox), which they use graphite as a moderator of

neutrons and carbon dioxide in the gaseous state as a coolant, light water-cooled graphite-

moderated reactor (LGR and RBMK), “light water" is normal water.

 [Last Name] 4

The next part is going to be based on the debate we had last week about advantages and

disadvantages of building a nuclear power plant, here I am going to point out some of them.

During the debate, I pointed out the importance economy has it has in this topic, since, not only

it takes approx.. 5-10 to build, it costs billions of moneys, so it is a huge investment that some

countries cannot even imagine spending that much money on something that has the risk of

expanding radioactivity throughout the whole country. As I just said, the risk of accident it has, I

think we have all heard about the Chernobyl disaster that happened some years ago that led to

the whole people to evict every citizen. Not only Chernobyl happened, other catastrophes, like;

Three Mile Island, and Fukushima Daiichi. Another downside these power plants have is the

mining and enrichment of uranium since it is not environmentally friendly processes. Although

open-pit mining for uranium is safe for miners, the process leaves behind radioactive particles,

which can cause erosion, and even pollute nearby sources of water.

Now on to the pros that were shared throughout the two hours. Unquestionably, nuclear power

plants in comparison to coal, gas, and other electric-generating plants, nuclear offers the lowest

by far in greenhouse gas emissions, due to the process I previously explained that does not harm

that much the planet. Another pro is that we can apply nuclear energy into medical reason, since

nuclear medicine uses radioactive isotopes and other aspects related to atomic energy for

prevention, diagnosis, therapy and medical research.

In conclusion, I do believe that if everyone starts transforming the energy they use in their house

with renewable energy (solar panels, wind energy, hydroelectric systems, …) we would not need

to build nuclear power plants, since I find them quite dangerous and not worth risking the death

of millions of people. I am aware the we would still need, right now, some sort of energy to
 [Last Name] 5

supply this renewable energy, since a country could not have their only source of energy one of

these types of energy. In general, I really enjoyed investigating about how the source of energy

could be like in the future, and the idea of having a debate really motivated me to search for

more “responses” I could answer back and making them re-think their choice and their position

and like this they could learn and understand more about the subject and I could open my

research abilities and knowledge :)

WEBGRAPHY

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/nuclear-energy

https://nuclear-energy.net/what-is-nuclear-energy/advantages-disadvantages-nuclear-

energy/advantages

https://www.energysage.com/about-clean-energy/nuclear-energy/pros-and-cons-nuclear-energy/

https://www.foronuclear.org/en/nuclear-power/how-does-a-nuclear-power-plant-work/