18th Commentary - The New Quest for Energy
This commentary is on a combination of various news and magazine articles, centred on the renewed quest for alternative energy sources, especially nuclear energy. The main article the nuclear issue is based on it entitled "Push for N-Power" dated 1st May 2006.
In the recent years, there have been numerous reports in the newspapers and magazines talking about the dangers of pollution and the potentially disastrous impacts of Global Warming. Furthermore oil prices have seen sharp rises in recent months. A few months ago, Russia threatened to cut off oil supplies to Ukraine. The threat of an oil embargo by Middle-Eastern countries has always been present. The nationalization of Bolivian natural resources increased oil prices. All these are problems that arise over the control of oil. With so many issues in the recent months, many countries are looking into other sources of energy that is cleaner and more stable.
This is where nuclear power comes in. As a source of energy, it is much cleaner than coal, oil and natural gas. It is also more efficient than wind and solar energy. Furthermore, nuclear power plants can be built in more places, unlike hydropower and geothermal energy, which are restricted by geographical attributes. More environmentalists are also advocating it, leaving behind their past reservations, as the use of coal – a cheap and efficient, but highly polluting source of energy - continues to increase air pollution at a rapid rate.
However, many people are still afraid of the high risks of using nuclear power, as they remember the disaster at Chernobyl in the USSR in 1986 and the near disaster of the Three Mile Island plant in the USA in 1979. The high costs to build the plants are also another prohibitive factor to the increase in the usage of nuclear power as a replacement for sources like coal or oil. Then there are the dangers of radioactive waste, which needs to be located away from people and stored under high security, due to increasing fears of nuclear terrorism. This make the rate at returning to nuclear power slower than what it could be, especially in the US and Europe. The fastest growing nuclear countries at present are in Asia, including India and China.
Another issue related to nuclear energy is the fear that countries would use the technology and develop nuclear weapons. This is the issue that is currently causing tensions between Iran and the West, where one side claims that civilian use is all it wants; while the other insists that there is a hidden agenda behind the push for nuclear power. Nuclear proliferation is a major issue that cannot be taken lightly, especially in the light that the tensions revolve around the Middle East. This is yet another issue that nuclear power users need to contend with.
Other clean energy resources, like wind, solar, and hydropower are also increasingly popular, as new technology has made these types of energy production more effective than ever, although still nowhere near that of using the fossil fuels. Despite that, more countries are using these sources, as they are clean, renewable, and readily available. Of course, these sources have their problems too. For example, there are people who dislike the use of wind energy, as the windmill fields needed take up a lot of space, and often become an eyesore in the landscape, spoiling the scenery. For hydropower, the unhappiness is with the drowning of habitats, both of animals and humans, and in the case of the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell, the drowning of beautiful scenery and a waste of water due to excessive evaporation (Lake Powell is located in a semi-arid area). There are many other issues too.
Overall, the quest for energy has reached a new stage, moving from just looking for the cheapest and most effective forms to include environmentally-friendly ones. What a country chooses would depend on which type of problems they would want to face – air pollution, nuclear problems, or lower efficiency and eyesores.
In the recent years, there have been numerous reports in the newspapers and magazines talking about the dangers of pollution and the potentially disastrous impacts of Global Warming. Furthermore oil prices have seen sharp rises in recent months. A few months ago, Russia threatened to cut off oil supplies to Ukraine. The threat of an oil embargo by Middle-Eastern countries has always been present. The nationalization of Bolivian natural resources increased oil prices. All these are problems that arise over the control of oil. With so many issues in the recent months, many countries are looking into other sources of energy that is cleaner and more stable.
This is where nuclear power comes in. As a source of energy, it is much cleaner than coal, oil and natural gas. It is also more efficient than wind and solar energy. Furthermore, nuclear power plants can be built in more places, unlike hydropower and geothermal energy, which are restricted by geographical attributes. More environmentalists are also advocating it, leaving behind their past reservations, as the use of coal – a cheap and efficient, but highly polluting source of energy - continues to increase air pollution at a rapid rate.
However, many people are still afraid of the high risks of using nuclear power, as they remember the disaster at Chernobyl in the USSR in 1986 and the near disaster of the Three Mile Island plant in the USA in 1979. The high costs to build the plants are also another prohibitive factor to the increase in the usage of nuclear power as a replacement for sources like coal or oil. Then there are the dangers of radioactive waste, which needs to be located away from people and stored under high security, due to increasing fears of nuclear terrorism. This make the rate at returning to nuclear power slower than what it could be, especially in the US and Europe. The fastest growing nuclear countries at present are in Asia, including India and China.
Another issue related to nuclear energy is the fear that countries would use the technology and develop nuclear weapons. This is the issue that is currently causing tensions between Iran and the West, where one side claims that civilian use is all it wants; while the other insists that there is a hidden agenda behind the push for nuclear power. Nuclear proliferation is a major issue that cannot be taken lightly, especially in the light that the tensions revolve around the Middle East. This is yet another issue that nuclear power users need to contend with.
Other clean energy resources, like wind, solar, and hydropower are also increasingly popular, as new technology has made these types of energy production more effective than ever, although still nowhere near that of using the fossil fuels. Despite that, more countries are using these sources, as they are clean, renewable, and readily available. Of course, these sources have their problems too. For example, there are people who dislike the use of wind energy, as the windmill fields needed take up a lot of space, and often become an eyesore in the landscape, spoiling the scenery. For hydropower, the unhappiness is with the drowning of habitats, both of animals and humans, and in the case of the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell, the drowning of beautiful scenery and a waste of water due to excessive evaporation (Lake Powell is located in a semi-arid area). There are many other issues too.
Overall, the quest for energy has reached a new stage, moving from just looking for the cheapest and most effective forms to include environmentally-friendly ones. What a country chooses would depend on which type of problems they would want to face – air pollution, nuclear problems, or lower efficiency and eyesores.
posted by Raylen at 10:30 PM
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