What environmental impact does nuclear energy have?

Answer 1

Ore for nuclear plants has to be mined, refined, and enriched to produce nuclear fuel. Each of these steps has an environmental cost. Mining is often done in strip mines, denuding and altering the surface of the land. Mine tailings are often poisonous. Both mining and refining use copious amounts of petrochemicals. In the United States, enrichment is done by a highly polluting coal power plant. All of these add to global warming, though not as much as fossil fuels would to generate as much electricity.

Use of nuclear power at the nuclear plant is said by advocates to be safe and clean. Opponents of nuclear energy argue with this. Either way, there are releases of radioactive substances from all nuclear power plants from time to time, and more than a quarter of all plants in the United States are known to have contaminated the soil on which they stand with radioactive tritium. This is a short-lived isotope, but its presence can add 100 to 400 million dollars to the decommissioning costs, and this is reflected in the removal and processing of soil, which uses a lot of petrochemicals, again adding to global warming.

The decommissioning of plants takes care of low-level nuclear waste, and uses a large amount of petrochemicals. Typically it costs hundreds of millions of dollars, and the amount of waste is reflected in this figure, adding more to global warming.

We do not know how to deal with high-level nuclear waste. In some countries it is vitrified and shipped to other, poor countries willing to be paid to store it. In many cases it will not be safe for longer than human beings have existed.

The possibility of meltdown or other nuclear disaster has to be considered. The Chernobyl disaster happened in what is now the Ukraine. Neighboring Belarus was stll putting about 20% of its GNP into cleanup twenty years later. The radioactive substances from such a disaster are destructive to all life. The amount of plutonium now in the waste has been calculated to be a multiple of what would be sufficient to kill all animal life, worldwide.

Answer 2

Nuclear reactors produce a lot of waste heat which require a large source of water to act as a heat sink. Most plants are built near rivers or lakes to absorb the excess heat from the reactor to keep the plant from damaging itself. As a result, the water temperature increases which can kill off sensitive species and negatively impact the environment. Hotter water could allow bacteria or algae to grow unchecked, which negatively affects the water supply.

Answer 3

it the soil bad

Answer 4

no