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Nuclear Energy |
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| The latest figures from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the global cooperation body for nuclear power producers, tells us that around 13-14% of the World's energy was produced by nuclear plants during 2009, continuing the slight downward trend on production of nuclear power, when taken as a % of total energy production. In total 28 nations produce nuclear energy, and 16 have plants under construction. |
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There can be no argument that we are facing energy issues right now, but when we look at the technologies we have designed, the energy needs of the entire planet could certainly be produced from a variety of different sources. So, it is clear that - with the political will in place - we can rely on green technologies to a much greater extent in the near future, and we could eventually wipe out the need for carbon power, and for nuclear power. This could not come at a better time, particularly when talking about nuclear power, because we are beginning to find out the real extent of the harm which we are causing to our own health, to the health of other living creatures, and to the health of our environment, due to the waste which this type of power creates. |
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Making nuclear fuel for nuclear reactors creates by-product's (nuclear waste), including Depleted Uranium (DU), and these waste materials can be toxic and radioactive, so much so that it is near impossible to store them away safely. And the waste created by the actual production of nuclear power, from that fuel, is even more hazardous, yet we continue to produce this waste material, with no reliable way of disposing of it, and generally it eventually gets buried underground, deposited into our oceans, dumped in landfills in poor/autocratic countries, or stuffed into DU bombs and dropped over invaded nations. The overall numbers of new reactors being built is dropping, but it does not look like nuclear power will disappear for many decades, so we must begin to work out what we can do with our growing stockpile of nuclear waste. We must find a scientifically-confirmed way of storing it. |
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Nuclear Power Reactors Under Construction>
Permanently Shutdown Nuclear Power Reactors> |
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| Globally, there is currently a downward trend on the production of nuclear power (as % of total energy production). View a list of the current total number of operational nuclear power plants globally, listed by the amount of years which they are in service. There are currently 14 reactors which are in service 40 years or more. |
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| Statistics: International Atomic Energy Agency |
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| Depleted Uranium (DU) is a by-product which is produced when we make fuel for nuclear power reactors, and also when we make nuclear bombs. There is no safe way to dispose of this waste product, so we generally store it underwater or underground in containers, which are generally not made to last millions of years, the amount of time DU may take to loose it's radioactivity. Western forces have also dropped a whole lot of DU over Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans, in DU bombs, some of which may contain reprocessed spent nuclear reactor fuel, the most dangerous DU to humans. |
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| There are currently nine nations which hold operational nuclear warheads (United States, Russia, France, China, United Kingdom, Israel, Pakistan, India, North Korea), and the United States also loans them out to Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Turkey, through a NATO-approved 'Nuclear Sharing' scheme. Many people believe that this policy violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which prohibits the transfer of nuclear weapons. There are currently 22,600 warheads globally, 21,600 of which are owned by the United States and Russia. |
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| There may be an incredible amount of media coverage devoted to the subject of pollution in general, but we still do not have a clear picture as to how badly we have already polluted the World. With a growing awareness of corporations being much more interested in profit, than in our environment or health, we must get an overall picture, and we must also find a 100% safe way of storing our most harmful types of waste. |
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| Einstein published the E=mc² equation in 1905, but it wasn't until 1935 - with the Nazi's getting more powerful and with war imminent in Europe - that it became critical to the military. This equation tells us how energy is created but even Einstein himself didn't believe that it could be harnessed in such a way as to create a super-bomb, due to the scientific complexities, but his belief changed just before World War II and he was instrumental in getting the project moving which would unleash the first atomic bomb on humans, something he publicly regretted until his death. |
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| Back in 2002 Professor Rusi Taleyarkhan - who was then based in the United States' Oak Ridge National Laboratory - claimed that he had discovered a way of re-creating natural Nuclear Fusion here on earth, with a device called the 'star in the jar'. For decades scientists have been trying to achieve this because, unlike conventional nuclear power, nuclear fusion would have no waste and the fuel required is hydrogen, something our world is covered in, in the form of water. This would truly be a big step for mankind if it were true, but Taleyarkhan's detractors shot holes in his science from the word go, and this film does the same, but it manages to give you a decent overview of the fusion process. |
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