Nuclear Power Plants

8 Pages 1955 Words

Nuclear technology has been around for more then fifty years, and it has many uses. The biggest use of nuclear technology has been the nuclear power plants to generate electricity, and the need for electricity is growing at a rapid pace around the world. According to John Taylor, the Author of The Nuclear Power Bargain, “Electricity demand is projected to grow by 480 percent in a high economic scenario and by up to 140 percent in an ecologically driven scenario” (Taylor, 41). These numbers are just in the United States, and when the entire world is taken into account, the numbers get even bigger. There are many ways to tackle this looming need for power like building thermal power plants, which work off of coal and release many Hydrocarbons into the atmosphere, or dams, but many scientists believe that building new Nuclear power plants are the best way to increase electric production. Focal point of the paper will be on whether nuclear technology should be transferred to other countries in order to build new nuclear power plants in order to meet that new power needs. The focus will be on issues like concerns of nuclear power countries about technology transfer, terrorism, nuclear waste, pollution, and public perception.
The biggest concern that many countries have with nuclear power plants is that they use the same material as nuclear bombs; the bomb’s uranium is just a little bit more pure. Many countries that desire nuclear weapons like to use nuclear power plants as an excuse in order to acquire nuclear materials. Thus, the U.S and many other nuclear power countries do not like to give nuclear power plant technology to countries that do not have nuclear technology already. But political historians, like Samuel Walker, believe that if a country has a desire to acquire nuclear weapons, then it will find ways to do so even if its not given the technology from countries that have nuclear technology (Walker 14). A good ex...