Nuclear power
An immense amount of heat can be produced from extracting the energy in atomic nuclei. This heat is used to boil water into steam in order to operate turbines which generate electricity. There is however a lot of public concern regarding using nuclear energy to produce electricity.
public concerns regarding nuclear power
The public have serious concerns with nuclear power and they are worried about:
- the risk of an explosion
- the risk of a leak of radiation
- the safety of transferring radioactive material, including waste, on public roads and railways
- the long term storage of radioactive waste
- the risk of a terrorist attack on a nuclear power station or waste storage area
Global warming concerns are driving the move away from burning fossil fuels to generate electricity. This would leave a big gap in being able to provide electricity 24 x 7 to the UK population. With technology as it is at the moment, renewable energy sources will not generate sufficient supplies of electricity on a continuous basis. Renewable energy requires the sun to shine, the wind to blow etc. and the public require electricity supplies to be provided around the clock!
Although the technological problems in generating sufficient energy from renewable sources may be solved in ten or twenty years time, it does not help at all with the problem of producing sufficient electricity now!