Many people the world over have an undying fear nuclear energy because it's something you can't see, taste, smell, hear, or feel. Radiation creeps up on you from miles away, but you can't detect it by yourself. You need a special meter called a geiger counter to tell how many deadly radiation your body is getting. Radiation can cause many health and environmental problems if it happens to sneak into the environment and your bodily system through foods, the air, or in the water. Nuclear energy is scary, yes. However, if we can harness nuclear energy safely, we can have endless amounts of energy for centuries to come.
This is an impressive notion, indeed! Nuclear energy has both fascinated and scared me from my earliest days of childhood.In fact my state of Pennsylvania had a nuclear accident occur there at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in 1979. I won't tell you my age, but I was alive then, and I do remember that incident. Ever since then I've been both awed and terrified by nuclear power. Interestingly, one of my hobbies is writing stories, and in one of my stories, the ending occurs in an active nuclear power plant.
After the Tohoku
earthquake (in March of 2011) which decimated the town of Kessenuma and the Fukushima nuclear power plant, we all became more
aware of the immense power and undeniable danger, of nuclear energy. We are slowly beginning to learn about the true outcome of that accident, and as such we can say that the area is probably unsafe to live in, and the food there might be unsafe to eat, and we surely don't want to find out! After the Kumamoto earthquakes, too, we all
became fearful of the immense power of a
devastating earthquake. We all found out that it is not a pretty experience. In Chernobyl in Russia in 1986, a nuclear accident occurred which caused radiation to leak for many years, which had undue health effects and continues to wreak havoc to this very day. It is still quite unsafe to live there, and we wouldn't even want to visit.
In
the upcoming class about nuclear energy we will watch a short movie about the
dangers of nuclear energy, but not only about the dangers - about the
incredible potential of nuclear energy as well. Of course nuclear energy is
dangerous, but it also has the capability of producing vast amounts of energy. Isn't that we we need to help humanity evolve?
Isn't that better for progress? For advancing to the next level of
awareness, of creating the next generation after generation of society?
This is something we all must ask - are the benefits worth the risk?
Perhaps only time and advances in nuclear technology will tell.
Think about it!
