Traditional Energy Resources

In order  to generate the energy needed by the world, power stations usually use traditional energy sources, such as fossil fuels or uranium. Although nuclear power allows the production of a great amount of energy with small amounts of uranium, most power stations prefer burning coal, oil or natural gas because of how dangerous the wastes of nuclear power may be. The following paragraphs will talk about fossil fuels and nuclear power in general, explaining their advantages and disadvantages.    

Fossil Fuels

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Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons, above all coal, fuel oil or natural gas, which were formed from the remains of dead plants and animals. These energy resources provide a great amount of the whole electrical power the world uses and are used especially for activities such as heating, transport and electricity generation.

The procedure through which this electrical power is achieved with the use of coal, oil and gas is the following:

(source: http://home.clara.net/darvill/altenerg/fossil.htm)

http://www.carsdirect.com/encyclopedia/fossil-fuels-coal-oil-and-natural-gas

The advantages of these energy resources are that a lot of energy can be generated using cheap materials and that the power stations in which these resources are handled can be built almost anywhere. However, this generation of energy produces many negative effects as well. When you burn fuel you produce dangerous substances, such as carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide. These gases cause pollution and contribute to dangerous processes for the earth, such as the greenhouse effect and acid rain. Moreover, this kind of energy resource is not a renewable resource.

Nuclear Energy: an alternative energy source?

The production of nuclear energy was abandoned in Italy after the referendum of 1987, in which the 80% of the votes showed the citizens' will  to stop creating this kind of energy. Nuclear explosions produce radiations, which harm the cells of human body and make people sick or even kill them. Illnesses can strike people years after their exposure to nuclear radiation. This type of energy causes serious risks to the environment, such as the disastrous accident that happened in 1986 in Chernobyl, Russia. The leak of a large amount of radition provoked the death of thousands of people and the population is still paying the consequences of that painful event. The citizens of all Europe were exposed to the risk of diseases since the explotion of a nuclear bomb can expads throughout  miles and miles away.

  Photo source   http://users.owt.com/smsrpm/Chernobyl/glbrad.html

Moreover, nuclear reactors have waste disposal problems. Reactors produce nuclear waste products which emit dangerous radiations. Because they could kill people who touch them, they cannot be thrown away like ordinary garbage. Currently, many nuclear wastes are stored in special cooling pools at the nuclear reactors.

However, as the earth has limited quantities of coal and oil, nuclear plants still play a central role in providing energy and Italy is bound to buy it from France, Germany and

Russia. In case of explotion we will pay the consequences (see picture) of the radiation as well. Nuclear power plants need less fuel than the ones which burn fossil fuels (1 ton of uranium produces more energy than several tons of coal). Moreover, well-operated nuclear plants do not release in the air toxic substances.