Nuclear Powerplants in the Philippines

These past years, the cost and necessity of energy sources like fossil fuels, coal and oil have increased its demand throughout time. With these in mind, new nuclear energy became a popular option. Nuclear energy is produced by the controlled use of nuclear chain reaction to boil water or produce the turbine power as well as create heat and generation of electricity. As such, the demand for turning to nuclear power has created a long-time debate all throughout the world, the Philippines, is one. However, we should not switch to nuclear energy to expose ourselves to great danger and I totally agree with this statement.

First and foremost, nuclear energy is not claimed as clean energy and there is difficulty in the maintenance of waste disposal for nuclear power. Nuclear fuel cycle utilizes large quantities of fossil fuel at all of its stages such as the mining and milling of uranium, transportation and long-term storage of massive quantities of radioactive wastes. Besides that, radiation can be spread through water cycle and can be deposited on people, plants, animals and soil. It can lead to harmful effects to public health drastically. In fact, there is also leakage of radioactive wastes as it is dumped in rural settings. In our case, where else? So, if we are switching to nuclear energy, great danger is certainly being exposed to us.

The second reason is that reactor accidents and the threat of weapon proliferation can always be a possibility. Nuclear reactors consistently release millions of curies of radioactive isotopes into the air and water per year. If a person inhaled these unregulated isotopes, it will eventually damage the body's organ and cause genetic diseases like lung cancer or worse, genetic mutation. The radioactive material can also be set as an attractive target for terrorist sabotage. Without doubt, there is a high possibility of catastrophic attacks done by terrorists that will happen if nuclear power plants are to be created. At the same time, nuclear weapons can be more accessible provided that everyone, most especially governments, creates dangers like wars.