Nuclear power is good if you can control it. Scientist are tying to find a way to dispose of radioactive waste. When a meltdown occurs, it becomes very hot and the fuel rods start to melt. This may lead for countries to not use nuclear energy. However, there are some reasons that are good. For example, nuclear power plants don’t release any pollutants in the atmosphere. It’s just steam. Nuclear power plants also don’t cause global warming.

if you thought the Fukushima crisis was over…

I think the USA should move towards the use of nuclear energy. Although nuclear energy can be dangerous when handled incorrectly, proper safety measures and back-up plans can help alleviate disaster if they are taken ahead of time. Nuclear energy is a lot cleaner than fossil fuels, and it can produce much larger amounts of energy than other renewable sources such as wind and solar energy. Nuclear energy is also cost-effective — although plants may be expensive to build, generating the energy itself isn’t expensive. Other countries are moving towards using nuclear energy, too, which should serve as a reason for the US to begin using nuclear energy. The usage of nuclear energy could affect the atmosphere by reducing CO2 emissions, possibly halting global warning if measures were to be taken to build plants now. To reduce it’s amount of CO2 emissions, the USA should expand its usage of nuclear energy.

Hi! I’m Eryka from the United States of America! I believe that the countries, like Germany (mentioned in the introduction), who moved away from using nuclear power made the right decision. They recognized the obvious threats that nuclear power has toward people and the environment.

To put this in terms where it is on a more personal level, people are in more danger from nuclear power. The USA, for example, is experiencing problems just being able to receive the materials and/or buy the actual materials necessary to make the power plant. The back and forth, unnecessary travel, only adds to people’s carbon footprint. We need to stop this. As of 2008 (noted in an online article by the Center for American Progress), only one company could make the bottleneck for the inside of the nuclear reactors containment vessel, and it was located in Japan. The reason this company is so important is due to the fact the inside it manufactured was made to help reduce radioactive leakage.

Another point I would like to talk about is the danger of radioactive materials in the environment.Radioactive materials have such long half-lives that they don’t get recycled out of the environment fast enough. This can have negative effects on humans who are exposed to it. Exposure to radioactive materials can cause hair loss, brain damage, and the damage of you reproductive organs. There are more body parts that can be affected, but these are just a few examples.

All in all I believe that nuclear power should not be a power source for anyone, we should look for another power source that does not have such dangerous threats to people and the environment.

Hi my name is Grace and I live in the United States. I think that nuclear testing is very dangerous, however, it seems to be good for the environment since it gives off little green house gases. Some pros to using nuclear energy is that it doesn’t give off smoke. Smoke is a major pollutant in the air. It also produces a lot more energy that wind and solar energys. The investment in nuclear energy could also create many jobs for the U.S.

Some cons however is that is very dangerous. Uranium is required for nuclear energy, and there is a lot of radioactive material. It is also not biodegradable. They energy is considered cheap, however it is very expensive to store the nuclear waste for a long period of time. The power plants would also have to use a lot of water which could harm wildlife.

Overall, I think nuclear power is a good idea and would reduce our carbon footprint, however, it may be too dangerous to use, and would be a big risk.

Hi my name is Marissa and I live in Houston, Texas. Although I have not heard any dicussion of nuclear testing in the United States, I still believe it is incredibly dangerous, but could also be good as well. Nuclear energy gives off little to no green house gases (carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbon, etc.), which are harmful to the enviroment and to the human race. If we found a safe, nonreactable source of nuclear energy, it would help the enviroment sufficiently. This is because the burning of the fossil fuels that we have to create energy contribute many harmful gases to the atmosphere. This nuclear energy would help lower the amounts of those gases being released into the air.

This would be a great source of energy for our world, if it wasn’t so dangerous. Nuclear energy has many disadvantages. Just because this energy does not release green house gases, does not mean it doesn’t give off other harmful substances. The waste products of this energy are relatively small, but they contain harmful sources of radioactivity and one of the only ways to dispose of this waste is to bury it in a site where it would not be able to harm the enviroment. Another major disadvantage of nuclear energy is the fact that dangerous nuclear bombs can be made from it. If the plants that hold this energy are not secured properly, these nuclear reactors could fall into the wrong hands. Another disadvantage is the accidents that happen with nuclear energy, like the one in Fukushima. These accidents are usually due to the core meltdown of the nuclear reactors. This becomes harmful because the core overheats and allows radiation to escape the building causing contamination to its surroundings.

These pros and cons allow us to see the different situations, involving our energy sources, that could effect our enviroment.

Hello, I’m Albert, studying at Dominican International School in Taipei, Taiwan.

Nuclear energy isn’t the exact solution for air pollution and global warming. It’s problematic to inhibit environmental pollution by producing another catastrophic nuclear disaster. Nuclear energy delivers human to an environmental crises.

First, consequences of a nuclear disaster are extremely shocking. The immortal radiation pollution stimulates mutation of organisms for generations. Additionally, radioactive elements are transported globally through mediums of rainfall, rivers, and oceans. For example, Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the most significant nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986, brutally damaged the environment. Because of leakage of highly radioactive elements, Fukushima remained uninhabitable for decades. This massive destruction was simply caused by constructs of nuclear power plants. In brief, banishment of nuclear power plants is required.

In conclusion, usage of nuclear power not only threatens the environment but also our lives. Taiwanese, let’s generate electricity through renewable resources and abandon nuclear-powered generators. Although it requires more capital, it secures and protects our irreplaceable planet, Earth.

I think nuclear plan is very dangerous. For example, many people died at the Fukushima accident. They were workers who worked at the unclear plan at that time. After the accident, there was still nuclear radiation. Therefore, even more people got sick or die because of the nuclear radiation. The Japanese government said the nuclear plan is not dangerous and is environmentally friendly. But it is lie. Those people who died were died because of cancer caused by the nuclear radiation. Now, some people like to have nuclear power plant, while some other people don’t. They fight against each other over the issue. The Fukushima accident let more people realized that nuclear radiation is bad, and nuclear plant is really dangerous. In my opinion, we should use less nuclear power, so that the earth can be saved. That should be the case for Taiwan, too. With less nuclear plants, the damage produced by the nuclear plants would also be reduced.

However, I believe Japanese will stand up and be strong again. They should have learned something from the accident. I hope that Taiwanese also learned something from the accident, too. Therefore, this kind of thing will never happen in Taiwan.

Hello, I’m Alexia
I think that nuclear energy is a good choice for governments to turn to as a solution. The disaster of Japan’s nuclear power plant in Fukushima was a warning to the rest of the world about the dangers of nuclear power plants. However after the disaster the Japanese government released a report on the crisis, which declared the disaster “man-made.” The report mentioned that some safety standards were not followed which if followed, would not have caused such a big crisis. I believe that since nuclear energy is that best clean renewable energy the world has right now we should use it but with precaution until another better renewable energy can be harnessed.
In Taiwan, there are about 6 nuclear power plants and there is more than 1 undergoing construction for use in the future. We also have a potential plan for geothermal plants in the future, which is an alternate plan for renewable energy. The benefits of nuclear power outweigh the dangers of it, especially since with new technology people can decrease the dangerous factors of using nuclear energy.

Hi, I am Angus Hsieh. I think we should keep the existing nuclear power plant. You cannot just shut down the nuclear power plants because the people’s house are based on the nuclear power plants. The disaster happened at nuclear power plants in Japan is a result of the tsunami that broke the cool down machine in nuclear power plants. The protecting of the nuclear power plant is only half of the tsunami. In Japan, there are many earthquake that cause the very big tsunami. However, in Taiwan, there aren’t many disaster, only earthquakes or typhoon. In addition, the cost of the nuclear power plant is very expensive, but it can produce a big amount of energy, so unit cost is cheaper. The unit cost of wind energy is expensive and it can’t produce enough energy for Taiwan. Although safety is more important than money, you can always use money to build a safer structure to protect the nuclear power plants. In conclusion, I strongly suggest to continue using the nuclear power plants.