How was it that in two of my classes- Journalism and English- separate students, for different projects, were choosing nuclear energy as their topics? In each of these cases, nuclear energy seemed to be something students were passionate about. I had heard a little about this energy source before, but because of these students, I dug deeper. I interviewed students Jacob Brown, Owen Woehrer, and Kyle Ortez, along with Michael Smith, lead instructor of Physical, Natural Applied and Environmental Sciences at Front Range Larimer campus, all in an effort to understand what nuclear energy is, and why my classmates were so passionate.
“It’s interesting, because the last generation people were terrified of it, and hated it, and wanted it to go away. So it’s interesting that that’s turned completely around. At least with the people you know,” says instructor Micheal Smith. It certainly is the case, at least with the students I interviewed, that they were for nuclear.
In my English Composition class, Kyle Ortez had to choose a topic for his argumentative essay. He decided on this subject after watching many YouTube videos about it. “This is honestly something I feel a lot of people are overlooking. It has a very messy history that unfortunately holds it back I feel”
The “messy history” Kyle refers to are the major incidents associated with nuclear power plants, such as the Three Mile Island accident, the Fukushima disaster, and the Chernobyl meltdown. But he explains that, “The biggest thing with nuclear energy that holds it back is public opinion and misconceptions on the truth of it.”
I had to ask Mr. Smith what nuclear power plants even are, so as to get an unpolitical understanding. He told me that they are no different than coal or oil powered plants in terms of their method. The practice of all plants is to create steam that will, in turn, push a turbine and create electricity. The only difference between plants is what is used to boil water. Nuclear power plants use rods of radioactive substances, like uranium. The rods heat the water as they transmutate, therefore boiling it.
Our Front Range instructor also explains that while the disasters like the ones aforementioned are real, there are hundreds of nuclear reactors across the globe, so it hasn’t happened to a large percentage of them. “It’s bad when it happens. You try to prevent that from happening. But it doesn’t happen very often.” He also mentions that the Fukushima event wouldn’t have occurred if it hadn’t been hit by a huge earthquake.
In my Introduction to Mass Media class, we were tasked with finding big stories. We had to find articles that told of something lasting – not breaking. My classmate Jacob Brown found an article about nuclear fusion – an energy source that has yet to work. Today, all nuclear reactors use fission, a process where heavy atoms are broken into smaller ones. With fusion, smaller atoms are combined into larger ones. Fusion is the process in which stars use to create energy. Like our sun. So far in history, we have never been able to get more electricity out of fusion than we would need to operate it. But the article Jacob found describes that companies are coming close.
I asked Jacob how long fusion has been researched for, “this has been going on for fifty or sixty years, and it’s only now seeing progress.”
In response to if nuclear should be a major energy source of our country Jacob says, “absolutely.” Owen Woehrer, another student in our class, sits next to Jacob and nods. He explains to us his view on nuclear power, “it’s creating waste, but way less waste than fossil fuels.” He goes on to tell us that we produce one-hundred-million tons of coal ash per year. And that coal ash can cause lung cancer. Both students favor this energy source over traditional sources.
So these students I interviewed have a stance. They have found an issue, and a way forward that they believe in. Michael Smith backs them up. He is concerned about global warming and thinks that a mixture of nuclear and renewable energy sources can help to mitigate negative effects. “Get rid of the coal fired power plants because that is a huge contributor to global warming.”
Mr. Smith says, “on the whole I’m booster!”
