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That's a very broad question that sounds like an essay question from Junior High.

Nuclear power has offered society the potential to produce essentially unlimited amounts of electricity using a technology that few of the users understand. When the majority of people hear "nuclear power" they immediately think of nuclear weapons, Hiroshima, Chernobyl, TMI, and general Holocaust. They do not think "hot water, steam generator, spinning turbine, and radioactive decay" and they do not recognize that every technological advance has advantages and disadvantages.

The advantages of nuclear power to generate electricity compared to coal, is that there is significantly less disturbance to the earth in the mining of the fuel, there are no products of combustion released to the atmosphere, the volume of the waste produced is orders of magnitude less and completely controlled, and the radioactivity of the spent fuel will eventually decay to harmless levels. Further, the spent fuel can be reprocessed to recover the useable material and reuse it in new fuel.

The disadvantages of the present generation of nuclear power plants is the complexity of the design which leads to over engineering of the systems and components. More components in the design means that there are more components to fail. The redundancy of separate trains of safety systems assures tht the fuel remains cooled however the numbers of failures fosters the image that the design isn't safe.

The media that discusses nuclear power tends to speak in absolutist terms such as "could there be a reactor fuel melt down?" The answer is "yes" with a probability that can be calculated based on the probability of failure of different pieces of equipment. That failure probability tends to be in the 10E-6 range or less, meaning that the string of failures needed to arrive at a fuel melt will happen once every 10E6 years (that's 1,000,000 years). This is not an easy concept to grasp, so the path of least resistance for the media is to not explain it. It's easier to ask an open-ended question and cut to commercial.

It could be argued that nuclear power really hasn't influenced society much at all in that most of the population doesn't know or care where their electricy comes from so long as the lights come on when the switch is thrown. People who live far from a nuclear plant can afford to oppose the technology since they don't have to think about it beyond the abstract. Those people who live close to a plant frequently learn to appreciate it for the good jobs that the site provides and the clean and generally reliable electricity it delivers.

There are a few pro-nuclear web sites which can provide that point of view. Nuclear Is Our Future (NIOF) has links to other sites which can provide additional information. Pay particular attention to John Cameron and his theories on radiation exposure.

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12y ago
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15y ago

Many people have taken a very anti view of nuclear power and formed pressure groups to try to stop it. Whenever a new plant is proposed there will be local groups set up to oppose it, so nuclear power seems to be a focus of society's need to have hate figures.

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14y ago

It clearly made war between nuclear powers such as Russia and the USA and subsequently UK, France, and China very undesirable, so it has preserved world peace to some extent, though lower level wars still plague mankind. Man is essentially an aggressive species willing to kill other humans in different tribes or countries, this has always been so and seems to be inherent in mankind, but this behaviour has had to be modified to preserve ones own society against retaliatory nuclear attack. This is largely for self preservation rather than an altruistic wish to preserve others, but on the other hand the US for example has not used nuclear weapons against for example Afghanistan, probably out of respect for world opinion which would utterly condemn such use.

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11y ago

As everything, there are positive and negative aspects. Society assigns nuclear power with death because of an explosion, which could happen, but there are positive things about it. Many countries use nuclear power since its high level of power generation. If an entire city has electricity available in their homes they feel right. Whether there is a nuclear power plant in a city, and since it can generate a lot of power, electricity is cheaper, and people more happy.

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15y ago

Biological tissues are damaged by radioactivity, so exposure must be tightly controlled. This has been very successful so far in most countries.

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9y ago

Nuclear power is an important means to reduce air pollution and global warming.

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11y ago

it plays a stupid part

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Q: How Has Nuclear Power Influenced Society?
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Which countries operate commercial nuclear reactors?

See www.world-nuclear.org for country by country information:INFORMATION PAPERSNUCLEAR BASICSOutline History of Nuclear Energy The Nuclear Debate GlossaryFACTS AND FIGURESWorld Nuclear Power Reactors 2008-09 and Uranium Requirements Nuclear share figures, 1998-2008 - May 2009 Uranium production figures, 1998-2008 - June 2009COUNTRY AND REGIONAL BRIEFINGSUranium in Africa Nuclear Power in Argentina Nuclear Power in Armenia Australia's Uranium Nuclear Energy Prospects in Australia Nuclear Power in Belgium Nuclear Power in Brazil Nuclear Power in Bulgaria California's Electricity Nuclear Power in Canada Nuclear Power in Canada Appendix 1: Ontario Energy Policy Nuclear Power in Canada Appendix 2: Alberta Tar Sands Uranium in Canada Uranium in Canada Appendix 1: Brief History of Uranium Mining in Canada Uranium in Central Asia Nuclear Power in China Nuclear Power in China Appendix 1: Government Structure and Ownership China's Nuclear Fuel Cycle Nuclear Power in Czech Republic Nuclear Energy in Denmark Nuclear Power in Finland Nuclear Power in France Nuclear Power in Germany Nuclear Power in Hungary Nuclear Power in India Nuclear Energy in Iran Nuclear Power in Italy Nuclear Power in Japan Uranium and Nuclear Power in Kazakhstan Nuclear Power in Korea Nuclear Power in Lithuania Nuclear Power in Mexico Uranium in Namibia Nuclear Energy Prospects in New Zealand Nuclear Power in the Netherlands Uranium in Niger Nuclear Power in Pakistan Nuclear Power in Romania Nuclear Power in Russia Nuclear Power in Slovakia Nuclear Power in Slovenia Nuclear Power in South Africa Nuclear Power in Spain Nuclear Power in Sweden Nuclear Power in Sweden Appendix 1: Barsebäck Closure Nuclear Power in Switzerland Nuclear Power in Taiwan Nuclear Power in the United Kingdom Nuclear Power in Ukraine Nuclear Power in United Arab Emirates Nuclear Power in the USA Nuclear Power in the USA Appendix 1: US Operating Nuclear Reactors Nuclear Power in the USA Appendix 2 Power Plant Purchases: Nuclear Power in the USA Appendix 3: COL Applications US Nuclear Fuel Cycle US Nuclear Fuel Cycle Appendix 1: US Uranium Mining and Exploration US Nuclear Power Policy Emerging Nuclear Energy Countries


Why isn't nuclear energy used more often by the society?

Nuclear power plants are expensive to build and need highly trained engineers to operate. Fear of a nuclear accident and fear of nuclear waste mean many people don't want nuclear plants to be built near them.


Do microwaves have any nuclear power?

There is no nuclear power involved in a microwave unless the electricity used to power it is from a nuclear power plant.


What do nuclear power plants have to do with nuclear energy?

Nuclear power plants produce electricity by using nuclear energy


What type of nuclear reaction is used to create power in nuclear power plants?

Nuclear fission

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Canadian Nuclear Society was created in 1970.


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Chinese Nuclear Society was created in 1980.


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What are cell organelles influenced by?

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What is the budget of Society of Nuclear Medicine?

The budget of Society of Nuclear Medicine is 10,800,000 dollars.


What three constitutional amendments have influenced America society to the present day?

It is all of them that have influenced the government and society.


What are examples of nuclear power?

nuclear power


How are nuclear power plants?

by nuclear power ¬.¬