THE Dulwich Despatch Summer 2023
A reason that we should use nuclear fuels is because while it may be bad, the alternatives are even worse. The most widely used energy source is fossil fuels, and the pollution that they produce is very harmful. While nuclear reactor failures have killed a few hundred people, which is already bad, fossil fuels ’ pollution cause around 7 million premature deaths per year. When the energy industry replaced fossil fuels with nuclear power, it prevented more than 1.8 million deaths between 1971 and 2009. This just shows you how nuclear fuel could save many lives. A second reason that we should use nuclear fuels is that they are relatively low cost. This is brilliant as it means that nuclear power can be used as a short - term power option while more money is spent on researching better and producing more renewable energy sources. The low price of nuclear power will also be attractive to rich, greedy governments to use, however nuclear power is still slightly more expensive than fossil fuels. As a short - term power source, nuclear power is an incredible option. It will save millions of lives and make way cleaner air for people all over the world, giving everyone better quality of life and health. While it is being used, renewable energy can be researched and mass produced as the next alternative to nuclear power. That is how nuclear power can save the world. Scientists have confirmed a breakthrough has been made that could create the way for abundant clean energy in the future after more than half a century of research into nuclear fusion, writes William Beresford (Y7) In December scientists shot a bunch of lasers at a pellet of fuel and more energy was released from that fusion ignition than the energy of the lasers going in. This is a massive development in nuclear fusion, but the technology is still very much not ready for power plants yet and it may take decades to make it worldwide. You might be asking, why should we care about a little bit of heat coming from a small pellet of fuel? The answer is because this really is the future of green energy as it is very green and will be able to replace coal and oil. It does have some downsides as the plants which have the equipment to run these test are madly expensive and as it is very new technology, only a few of the test facilities have actually got any information about the sustainability of the whole process. Overall nuclear fusion is slowly getting better but we still do not know what lies ahead for the relatively new power source.
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