Essay --

Why should Philippine government invest in Nuclear power? What is Nuclear energy? Nuclear energy is the energy released in two different processes, which is nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. Fission is the process of splitting a large atom into smaller atoms while fusion is the process of fusing smaller and lighter atoms into a large atom. The number one use of nuclear energy is to generate electricity. Electricity is generated through a Nuclear Power plant or a Nuclear Reactor. Nuclear reactors produces electricity in a much similar way with other power plants produces electricity. The process on how a nuclear reactor produces electricity is that it produces and controls the release of energy from splitting the atoms of certain elements then the energy released is used as heat, which turns water into steam, and then later on the steam is used to generate electricity. The difference of a nuclear power plant to other power plants is in the process on how the heat is created. Other power plants that run on fossil fuels, burn oil, coal or natural gases generate heat. While in a nuclear power plant, it generates heat by splitting the atoms of certain elements like uranium. Nuclear energy requires a large capital for emergencies, storage systems and containment but it has a lot of benefits and the best energy source in the long run. With the depleting sources, nuclear energy is the only energy source that can satisfy global demand, effectively replace fossil fuels and it is more sustainable than other energy sources. Nuclear energy has no greenhouse or acid rain effects and the fuel is inexpensive. Nuclear energy also provides environmental safety because the process on how nuclear energy is generated is that it is one of the clea... ... of energy is coal and recently the government approved to build 17 coal plant more in addition to 15 existing coal plant. But there are so many bad sides of using coal and there is better alternative for coal, the nuclear power. Since energy from coal is not affordable for many people in the Philippines and cost tremendously to environment through causing greenhouse effect and destroying ozone layer. Even though nuclear power is not risk-free like the event in Fukushima’s failure of nuclear plant, however the danger of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions may be more urgent -- and thus make nuclear a better choice than coal form the environment. Even for waste disposal, a typical coal-burning power plant creates over 300,000 tons of waste ash and sludge each year while a typical nuclear power plant generates 20 metric tons of radioactive waste annually