| Major
sources |
Methods
of pollution |
| Nuclear
power plants |
- The
waste resulted, in form of radioactivity, brings hazard when unsafely
maintained
- Nuclear
power plant accidents, if radioactive core is exposed and meltdown is
occurring and releasing high amount of radioactivity, will endanger the life and surrounding environment.
|
| Nuclear
weapon |
- Nuclear
weapon tests that are conducted above ground or under water
- Nuclear
bombing such as what have happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki will
create a vast and thorough devastation in a short time.
|
| Transportation |
- Transportation
of nuclear wastes from one place to another, by any forms of
transportation (air, land, water, sea) will possibly bring serious
hazards to the environment if they are not maintained carefully and/or
facing accidents.
|
| Disposal
of nuclear waste |
-
The
decaying process of radioactive wastes takes a very long time in
progress. Some radioactive substances have a half-life of more than
10,000 years, which means they are dangerous in that great amount of
time. A half-life is the ‘period of time required for the
disintegration of half of the atoms in a sample of a radioactive
substance’ (Britannica). There are common ways to dispose nuclear
waste (nuclear wastes are resulted from many kinds of use, for example
medical use, mining, etc.): burying under ground very deeply and burying under the sea, and
even an idea that to send them to outer space. However, they are still
dangerous and expensive. Science is still on its way finding a better
way to solve this problem.
|
| Uranium
mining |
- Uranium, substance that is used in
nuclear power plants, is harvested from uranium mining. Uranium mining
results in radioactive waste that pollutes the surrounding
environment.
|