Back in Greece in 1400B.C. there was a boy named Johnny K. He lived a very reclusive life and he had no friends. Her sister once said “What are you doing?” (Christie 219). Johnny also believed that his other brother was Canadian. “Praise Canada,” he would often find himself yelling as he skipped down the street. One day he took a field trip to the forest and the teacher told them, “When people move onto what once was rural land, they modify the landscape” (Axelrod 262). Johnny was delighted to hear what his teacher had to say.

Johnny was afraid of his father. He often got down on his knees before his father and said “Yet ah my king, my king no more!” (Eschylus 63). His father almost always disagreed and rebutted his son’s argument by saying “thermometer scale starting at absolute zero” (Morgan 45). Soon thereafter Johnny would go study math. He would often find himself wondering “For which cardinals m, n is the following statement true?” (Willmott 22). He would never find the answer out.

One day while Johnny was walking down the street he asked a boy, The boy often stared down at his feet (Rottenberg 12). The boy never answered but instead gave Johnny a mean look. The boy of course was in the fraternity Pi Kappa Phi and he was a well respected member. The boy was on his way to Race across Florida which is basically a cycling event for PUSH America that involves cyclists racing across Florida (Pi Kappa Phi). After a while the boy began talking to Johnny about the fraternities on campus at The University of Texas at Tyler and Johnny was very interested. Soon after Johnny got home he went to the official school’s website and read that the school is actually one of the fastest growing universities (UT Tyler). He also read in a magazine that the terrorists were threatening the United States again (Yousafzai  3). He later joined the school and all was well and he became very popular and everyone loved him.

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INTRODUCTION

This report examines nuclear waste disposal and storage as an ethical and scientific problem. Our purpose is to communicate our research and make recommendations about the future of high- level nuclear waste storage. We also want to evaluate the future of nuclear waste in an ethical framework. This evaluation is important because humanity needs an increasing amount of energy, and nuclear energy can provide some of the energy if scientists solve the nuclear waste problem. A solution to nuclear waste will allow nuclear energy to be an effective part of humanity’s response to the growing energy demand. The report begins with background about nuclear power. Next, the report examines current nuclear waste storage, the ethical problems with current waste storage, and future nuclear waste storage and disposal technologies. Finally, we evaluate each future technology in ethical terms and include recommendations for the future.

BACKGROUND (DEFINITIONS AND HISTORY)

The world’s energy demand is growing as industrialization and population expand. Countries are pursuing alternative energy sources to meet the demand. One promising alternative energy source is nuclear energy. However, nuclear energy produces hazardous wastes which humans must contain.

World Energy Supply Problem

The combustion of gas, coal, and oil accounts for about 80% of the world’s energy supply. Scientists expect our energy needs to increase between 30% and 70% in the next twenty years. Figure 1 shows that the world demands about 462 quadrillion Btu of energy, and projects that in year 2030, humans will need about 695 quadrillion Btu of energy. At the same time, hydrocarbon energy sources are dwindling and losing popularity because of the emissions of greenhouse gas. Even if highly speculative new hydrocarbon sources are successful, they will only postpone the future supply problem (Cugnon 2004; Ferguson and Smith 2009).

The inability of hydrocarbon sources to be a sustainable energy source will leave a large gap between the energy humans need and the energy humans can produce. An increase in human population and industrialization in the third-world countries will compound the energy demand. Additionally, the public is advocating for sustainable energy sources to fill the energy shortage that hydrocarbon combustion will leave behind (Cugnon 2004; Ferguson and Smith 2009).

Nevertheless, highly-touted alternative energy supplies will not be able to meet our energy needs in the short term. Many alternative energy prospects are unsustainable or too small to contribute meaningfully. For example, wood consumption depletes forests, and biomass fuels compete with food staple production for farmland. Energy from Earth’s natural heat sources provides insignificant power. Using dams for power is unpopular, and many other fuel sources such as hydrogen fuel cells remain in early development. Among truly renewable resources, only solar and wind power are able to immediately provide an adequate supply of electricity. Moreover, despite advances in sustainability, humans continue to need more energy (Cugnon 2004).

Nuclear Power Plants

Nuclear power plants generated 15% of the world’s electricity in 2005. In the U.S., there are 66 nuclear power plants in operation. All the nuclear power plants use uranium and plutonium as fuel and operate similarly (Ferguson and Smith 2009; Holt 1998).

Basic Operation

A typical nuclear power plant consists of the reactor vessel, turbine, generator, and the condenser. A series of pumps and pipes connects the components together. The energy generating mechanism, fission, takes place inside the reactor vessel when a neutron hits a uranium-235 atom and the uranium atom absorbs the neutron. The uranium atom subsequently becomes unstable and splits. The nuclear fission reaction releases heat and more neutrons. The emitted neutrons initiate fission reactions of more uranium atoms, which create a self-sustaining chain reaction. Each uranium fission reaction releases a small amount of heat. Billions of fission reactions occurring every second in the reactor vessel produce enough heat to generate electricity (Energy 2001). Figure 2 depicts the basic layout of a nuclear power plant.

The heat generated by nuclear fission turns water in the reactor vessel to high-pressured steam. A series of pipes transfers the steam to the turbine. Inside the turbine, the steam flows through the turbine rotating the blades at about 1,800 revolutions per minute. The turning blades generate electricity. Another series of pipes sends the steam through a condenser which cools and condenses steam to liquid water. Then the water returns to the reactor vessel completing the cycle (Pressurized 2009; Energy 2001).

Inside the reactor vessel, there are control rods which move in and out of the reactor vessel. The control rods are made of boron. Boron absorbs neutrons and therefore the control rods decrease the fission rate when inserted into the reactor vessel. An operator controls the power of the fission reaction by regulating the number and depth of the control rods inserted into the reactor vessel. To stop the fission chain reaction completely, an operator fully inserts the control rods into the reactor vessel (Energy 2001).

Production of Waste

Humans use radioactive materials for electricity generation, disease diagnosis and treatment, and other functions such as nuclear weapons. Radioactive waste is a by-product of nuclear processes. Nuclear power plants generate waste when materials are in the proximity of nuclear fuel or other radioactive material. Depleted nuclear fuel also becomes waste when the fuel no longer releases enough heat to be efficient for producing electricity (Lowenthal 1997).

Types of Nuclear Waste

As time passes, the radioactivity of nuclear waste diminishes because of radioactive decay. The half-life of a radioactive material is the amount of time the material takes to decrease the number of radioactive atoms to one-half of the original level.

High-level Nuclear Waste

In a nuclear reactor, nuclear fuel becomes inefficient in generating heat and therefore the fuel is unable to produce a significant amount of electricity. Nuclear plants replace spent fuel with new fuel every 12 to 18 months. The depleted fuel is high-level nuclear waste (HLW). HLW is extremely harmful to humans. Direct exposure to radioactive spent fuel can be fatal. Ten years after a plant removes spent fuel from the reactor vessel, the fuel emits 20,000 rems per hour within a 1 m radius. Rem is the measurement of amount of radiation a person absorbs. Human exposure to a total of 5,000 rems can incapacitate and kill a human in one week. Therefore, 15 minutes of unshielded exposure to spent fuel rods emits enough radiation to kill a human (Lowenthal 1997; Spent 2009; Winkenwerder 2002).

Low and Intermediate-level Nuclear Waste

Low and intermediate-level nuclear waste includes materials contaminated by other radioactive materials or through exposure to neutron radiation. Examples of low and intermediate-level waste are industrial machinery and safety equipment in a nuclear plant. Low and intermediate-level nuclear waste varies in harmfulness to humans because of the waste’s different concentrations and types. The waste produced in the medical field does not cause an illness when an unshielded person the waste. In contrast, some low-level waste from nuclear power plants such as processing water increases the risk of cancer or cause a fatality because of the high dosages of radiation expelled (Lowenthal 1997).

Uranium Mining and Mill Tailings

Uranium mining activities have grown recently because the price of uranium increased from $9.7 to over $90 per pound in the last seven years. The by-products of these processes are uranium mining and mill tailings. Uranium mining and mill tailing contain the radioactive element radium which takes thousands of years to decay to background radiation level (Fact 2009; Lowenthal 1997).

Transuranium Waste

Transuranium waste includes materials contaminated with chemical elements that have atomic numbers greater than 92 like plutonium. Transuranium materials have unstable nuclei and emit alpha particles. The radioactive atoms must have half-lives longer than 20 years and concentration levels of at least100 nCi/g. nCi/g is a measure of the concentration of decaying particles in a material (Lowenthal 1997; Winkenwerder 2002 ).

CURRENT NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE AND DISPOSAL

There are no permanent storage methods for high-level nuclear waste. Fuel rods will decay to background radiation levels in 100,000 years. The techniques to storing high-level nuclear waste are on-site storage and spent fuel uranium reprocessing. Both methods have problems which make them incapable of being long-term solutions (Franceschetti, et al. 2002).

Techniques

High-level nuclear storage techniques are on-site storage and uranium reprocessing. Cooling pools and dry casks are the two high-level waste storage techniques which are implemented on-site. The other method is reprocessing which is the process of dissolving fuel rods to remove the uranium and plutonium to reuse as fuel (Holt 1998).

Low and Intermediate-level Waste

Nuclear reactor sites store low-level waste and intermediate-level waste in large steel vessels to decrease the radiation level. Next, the nuclear sites bury the low-level and intermediate nuclear wastes around 100 m underground because the waste will decay to background radiation levels within 100 to 500 years (Franceschetti, et al. 2002).

On-site Storage

Spent fuel rods removed from nuclear reactors have high levels of radiation. On-site cooling pools contain the spent fuel rods for 5 years. After 5 years, the plant removes the fuel rods from the cooling pools and places the rods in concrete and steel casks. The casks store the fuel rods and prevent radiation contamination on the surface. Figure 3 shows a diagram of a cask. Inside the storage cask is another containment canister to prevent contamination, and bundled in the middle are the spent fuel rods. Circulating air removes the heat produced from decaying uranium in order to prevent a cask from overheating. Nuclear reactor sites retain all the produced high-level waste either in the cooling pools or in dry cask storage depending on the storage phase (Franceschetti, et al. 2002; Holt 1998; Klevans and Farber 2005).

Reprocessing

Reprocessing is the technique of dissolving spent fuel rods and then removing the plutonium and uranium elements. Nuclear plants use the extracted plutonium and uranium as fuel and can continue reprocessing the spent fuel rods until the concentrations of uranium and plutonium are too low to allow reprocessing to be cost effective. The reprocessing method’s wastes are liquid and dangerous and difficult for disposal. Reprocessing plants utilize vitrification to turn the liquid wastes into solid waste. Vitrification is the process of dissolving the liquid high-level waste in molten glass and allowing the mixture to harden into a solid (Holt 1998).

Reprocessing allows the recycling of spent fuel rods decreasing waste by 75%. The waste also contains no plutonium which decreases the waste’s required storage time because plutonium has a half-life of 24,000 years which is longer than the other materials’ half-lives. Reprocessed waste decays to a background radiation level within 2,000 years, while unreprocessed waste takes 100,000 years (Franceschetti, et al. 2002; Klevans and Farber 2005).

Drawbacks and Environmental Damage

There are many drawbacks to both reprocessing and on-site storage which make them unable to facilitate the permanent storage needed for nuclear waste.

On-site Storage Drawbacks

In the United States there are 44,000 tons of spent uranium fuel rods. Nuclear plants store all the high-level waste on-site. There are many risks to storing the spent fuel on-site in cooling pools and steel and concrete casks. The amount of spent fuel also increases the risks of on-site storage because the cooling pools are full and the storage of new waste is in dry casks.  The Nuclear Regulatory Commission determined that spent fuel rods stored in dry casks are safe for 100 years. Therefore, the cooling pools and the dry casks are not permanent solutions because dry casks can safely store waste for 100 years and cooling pools do not have any more room for spent fuel storage. Adding to the problem is that the United States is increasing the total spent fuel by about 2,200 tons per year. Therefore, the government must find a solution which will last for 100,000 years and safely store the waste preventing environmental contamination. Also, on-site nuclear waste would increase radioactive waste contamination in the event of a nuclear plant meltdown. A meltdown could destroy the containment shelter allowing for more radioactive waste to contaminate the surrounding area (Franceschetti, et al. 2002; Holt 1998).

Reprocessing Drawbacks

Reprocessing is also not a good solution because it has many drawbacks. The waste produced during the reprocessing method is liquid and more difficult to handle than the solid waste. Reprocessing plants must change the waste into a solid and then find a suitable storage facility for the waste.  Nuclear plants also must transport the nuclear waste to reprocessing plants. For example, Japan transports their nuclear waste across the ocean to Great Britain for reprocessing. Transporting the waste increases the risk of environmental contamination. Another drawback is that reprocessing isolates the plutonium from the waste material. The weapons grade plutonium causes security concerns because a terrorist group could use the plutonium to build a nuclear weapon. The security concerns of reprocessing nuclear waste led the United States to discontinue reprocessing in the 1970s. France and Britain reprocess their high-level waste. Reprocessing reduces, but does not eliminate, the requirement for the nuclear industry to store spent fuel securely to prevent the waste from contaminating the environment (Cugnon 2004; Holt 1998).

NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE AS AN ETHICAL PROBLEM

Nuclear plants should make absolutely certain that nuclear wastes, especially uranium compounds, are or will be at safe levels before the plants release the waste into the environment. Water-soluble uranium compounds can easily contaminate ecosystems if they leak out of storage vessels. Uranium can pollute water sources such as rivers and underground water aquifers. When uranium enters the body, it causes diseases like kidney failure, heart disease, and cancer. High-level nuclear waste disposal is therefore as much an ethical problem as it is a scientific one (Talbott, et al. 2003).

Consequences of the Three-Mile Island Accident

At the Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant located in Dolphin County, Pennsylvania in 1979 there was a partial core meltdown. The University of Pittsburgh conducted a mortality study on residents in the Three Mile Island (TMI) vicinity. This study assessed the long-term Three Mile Island Accident (TMIA) effects. The researchers concluded that TMIA caused an increase in background radiation in a 5-mile radius of the power plant. The accident increased average background radiation from 7.6 mrem to 24.6 mrem per individual. The increase in radiation elevated mortality rate for men and women in the area. Death from heart disease, which made up 39.9% of the total mortality, was the biggest difference from control populations (Talbott, et al. 2003).

Elevated background radiation increased in the breast cancer rate. Other diseases that attributed to the elevated mortality rate were cancer of the bronchus, trachea, and lung; Burkett’s lymphoid leukemia; connective tissue cancer; and Hodgkin’s disease. The TMIA proved that nuclear accidents have catastrophic consequences on surrounding areas. TMI is a reminder that nuclear safety is an ethical issue that has the potential to destroy many lives (Talbott, et al. 2003).

General Contamination Problem

Nuclear power plants use uranium as fuel, but human exposure to uranium compounds is toxic. Humans can ingest, inhale, or absorb uranium through the skin. Water-soluble uranium compounds are especially dangerous because the human body can absorb relatively large amounts of water-soluble compounds. Uranium compounds can cause lung irradiation, affect renal function, and cause kidney failure. Currently, the United States’ nuclear industry stores around 44,000 tons of uranium from nuclear power plants, and the amount is increasing by about 2,200 tons per year. There are ethical problems like leakage, contamination, and human contact with storing nuclear waste at the surface. The problems make technology for nuclear waste disposal more than a scientific feat. Instead, science is providing the solution to nuclear waste storage ethical problems (Franceschetti et al. 2002; Gavrilescu 2008; Holt 1998).

FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES

The problems with nuclear waste disposal are difficult to solve with current technology. However, there are methods at various stages of development that attempt to alleviate the ever-growing problem of high-level nuclear waste storage and disposal.

Burial and Isolation

Finland, Sweden, and the United States are pursuing the burial method for minimizing the nuclear waste risk. The proposal is to bury nuclear waste in a multi-layered “tomb” far beneath the earth’s surface. Figure 4 illustrates the layout of a typical “tomb.” The purpose of burying the waste is to prevent the possibility of hazardous leaking or contamination when nuclear power plants store waste at the surface. However, there are difficult problems associated with the burial method, both technical and social (Cugnon 2004).

Finland is experimenting with solutions to the technical problems using scale models of a tunnel storage structure for high-level nuclear waste. The main obstacles are groundwater contamination and geologic instability. While the United States has struggled to find a repository site for its nuclear waste, Finland hopes to open a full-scale repository in 2020. If scientists overcome the remaining challenges, burial could solve the surface contamination problem because repositories would store high-level waste deep underground in isolated geological formations (Hansen 2006).

Geological Issues

Radioactive waste takes 100,000 years to decay to the background radiation level. Underground repositories need to isolate the waste until it decays to prevent environmental contamination. Environmental contamination exposes humans to harmful radiation. To prevent contamination, an optimal repository requires no human maintenance after initial storage. Because the repository must remain operational for millions of years with minimal human interaction, scientists study the potential geological processes that could compromise a repository. One long-term problem is rock weathering and diagenesis. Diagenesis is the physical change in rocks due to the intense temperatures and pressures of deep burial (Curtis 2002; Franceschetti, et al. 2002).

Another geological issue is climate change. Changing climate can increase both temperature and the amount of water in an environment. More water and higher temperatures increase the weathering rate. Additionally, earthquakes and volcanoes are problematic because they can damage the waste repository structure (Curtis 2002).

Weathering and Diagenesis

Surface weathering and subsurface diagenesis are processes that degrade rock slowly over thousands of years. Weathering and diagenesis each have mechanical and chemical methods that breakdown rock differently. The chemical degradation of rocks is a serious problem for nuclear waste repositories because degradation increases the risk of subsurface rock failure. Rocks exposed to pure water will undergo chemical changes either by dissolution or hydration. Dissolution is the mechanism where ions in the rock dissolve into the water. Hydration occurs when minerals in the rock chemically react with water. For example, silicon dioxide—a basic building block of many minerals—chemically reacts with water to form dilute silicic acid (Si(OH)₄). The amount of water, rock formation temperature, and water purity affect the chemical degradation rate. More water increases reaction rate, but water containing solutes has a lower dissolution rate. Diagenesis therefore occurs more rapidly in purer water (Curtis 2002; Chen et al. 2005).

Subsurface diagenesis may cause cave-ins which can compromise repositories. Water movement through rock pores also contributes to higher dissolution rate because dissolved ions are unable to precipitate and support the rock structure. Water has a higher solute concentration as depth increases, and there is little water migration at very low depths. As a consequence of these inputs, deeper repositories encounter lower dissolution rates (Curtis 2002).

Climate Change

Changing climate over a region is another problem for long-term subsurface repositories because changing climate influences the stability of subsurface rock. Geologists must find regions that are more likely to have a dry stable climate, but geologists have difficulty forecasting long-term climate change over thousands of years. If a region’s climate becomes more humid and rainy, weathering and diagenesis increase (Curtis 2002).

To lessen climate effects, repositories need to be deep underground because, at low depths, fresh water is less likely to displace deep saline water. Saline water is denser than fresh water which causes stratification. Stratification creates a barrier that prevents fresh water from migrating deep underground.  Understanding climate change is important because the introduction of fresh water in an arid environment leads to rock dissolution, which can compromise nuclear waste repositories. Because climate change is difficult to predict, the solution is to locate repositories deep underground where climate change effects are insignificant (Curtis 2002).

Stable Rock Types

Different rock types have different physical properties. Only crystalline rock, salt, and shale have the necessary physical properties to support an underground repository. Crystalline rock is strong and stable at high temperatures, but it fractures under stress and becomes highly permeable. A rock with high permeability allows dissolved nuclear isotopes to migrate into the water table. Salt and shale have low permeability and prevent dissolved nuclear isotope migration better than crystalline rock. Also, when a shale or salt formation fractures, the formation can seal itself, unlike crystalline rock.  However, shale can range from unconsolidated mud to a stable compressed rock. Again, deeper repositories are better because at lower depths shale is more compressed and stable. Salt, on the other hand, becomes mobile when compressed, and its mobility makes it a poor choice for an underground repository (Curtis 2002).

Another repository problem is the availability of suitable rock formations. For underground repositories to be effective solutions to the nuclear waste problem, countries need to find rock formations that can handle high stresses while also preventing nuclear waste from leaking. For example, Sweden and Canada have predominantly crystalline rocks, but neither have abundant shale. Both countries will have to address the problem of crystalline rock fracture before their geological storage repositories will be impregnable. Geological storage requires scientific solutions to natural processes that compromise repositories. After these processes are minimized, scientists must locate suitable repository sites. Despite these challenges, underground nuclear waste storage is a promising solution (Curtis 2002).

Volcanism and Tectonic Activity

Earthquakes and volcanic activity are a risk for underground nuclear waste repositories. Volcanic activity creates faults through the surrounding rock layers. If a fault forms in close proximity to a repository, the fault could compromise the repository’s containment walls. The added stress could damage the foundation or the repositories containment walls leading to radioactive contamination of the surrounding soil. However, the risk of a fault interacting with a repository is low, and scientist can also determine high volcanic risk regions and can thus abstain from building repositories in these high risk regions. Earthquakes though are more damaging to repositories than volcanic activity because earthquakes damage structures over a vast area. An earthquake occurring in the area of a repository could cause a structural failure because of the ground shaking and rock deformations. Earthquakes are more difficult to predict than volcanic activity and cause damage over a larger region. To reduce the risk of earthquake damage on a repository, the location must be in a region that has little history of damaging earthquakes (Curtis 2002).

Yucca Mountain

Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles from Las Vegas, is a proposed site of an underground nuclear waste repository for the United States’ spent nuclear fuel. In 1987, Yucca Mountain was one of three sites proposed as geologically stable and remote enough to house the United States’ waste facility. In 2002, Congress certified Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository as a safe location. However, Nevada residents strongly opposed the waste facility plans. In 2008, Nevada’s congressional delegation succeeded in greatly reducing funding for the project. Although scientists were optimistic that construction on Yucca Mountain would begin by 2017, construction is unlikely to ever begin at Yucca Mountain (Putney 2008; Reid 2009).

The Yucca Mountain repository plan failed because there was local opposition to storing America’s nuclear waste in Nevada. As a result, Congress needs to move future geological storage sites away from large cities. Additionally, the Yucca Mountain plan showed that the waste disposal issue is not purely scientific. Nuclear waste storage is also an ethical and social problem. Simply solving the technical challenges of geological storage is not sufficient to persuade local residents of having a nuclear waste repository near their homes (Putney 2008, Reid 2009).

Waste Minimization

Waste minimization technologies do not eliminate the need for long-term nuclear waste disposal. Instead, waste minimization technologies reduce the amount of nuclear fission products. The graphite-cooled fast reactor, which is a modification of the common nuclear reactor, is able to cut waste products considerably. The reactor produces plutonium instead of the main waste products of traditional reactors. Next, the reactors use the plutonium as fuel which decreases the amount of nuclear waste. Fast reactors produce fewer by-products than traditional reactors because fast reactors are able to use the waste products as fuel (Bomboni, et al. 2008).

Light water reactors, which are the predominant reactors in use, use only about one percent of the possible fissile material, leaving unnecessary waste. The graphite-cooled fast reactor uses more of the wasted fuel. The fast reactor promises to ease the problem of geologic storage and isolation of high-level nuclear waste because graphite-cooled reactors decrease high-level waste (Bomboni, et al. 2008).

High-Level Nuclear Waste in Space

The current cost to launch an object into orbit around the earth is about $20,000 per kilogram. Beamed energy technology (BEP) based on laser-powered propulsion of objects into space may considerably lower the cost. Figure 5 is a model that shows the very small size of the BEP launch container. If BEP is successful, it could send waste into high orbit for about $200 per kilogram. However, BEP is at least 15 to 25 years from being a real alternative because the highest flight using BEP technology is currently less than a few hundred meters. Moreover, a conservative estimate of the cost of developing BEP technology is $10 billion. Therefore, the adoption of BEP technology is unlikely. Nevertheless, BEP would solve the problem of nuclear waste storage and disposal because BEP could send nuclear waste out of our atmosphere into orbit (Coopersmith 2006; Myrabo 2001).

EVALUATION

The current high-level nuclear waste storage practices are insufficient and pose clear ethical problems. The problems are the result of inadequate storage space and the possibility of contamination by leaks and accidents. The human health hazards and environmental risks that current storage options create make a strong case for a new storage strategy.  The new strategy cannot abandon nuclear energy because the world already has high-level waste stockpiles that require storage.

There are four components that could be part of a long-term nuclear waste solution: burial, waste minimization, beam energy propulsion and conservation. Recent scholarship claims that conservation, although vital to our energy future, will not be sufficient to reduce the gap between the energy humanity can produce and the energy humanity will consume because of the increase in demand from developing countries (Cugnon 2004; Energy 2001). Therefore, humanity needs specific technological solutions to the nuclear waste problem.

Burial

Storage of high-level nuclear waste in deep, isolated, and remote underground geological formations will be part of any successful solution to the problem of abundant high-level nuclear waste at the surface. High-level nuclear waste burial is technically challenging and socially somewhat unpopular (Reid 2009). Nevertheless, scientists have solved almost all of the technical challenges associated with deep burial. As a result, burial is the most promising method for dispensing of nuclear waste that can be implemented within a reasonable time frame. The main advantage of burial is the ability to sequester nuclear waste for the entire time the waste remains dangerous.

The major ethical problem with the current storage of waste is contamination, and successful implementation would dramatically decrease the possibility of any contamination at the surface or of groundwater. There are limitations to this solution, however. First, there have not been any full-scale tests. Until there are full-scale tests, there will always be uncertainty about the effectiveness of burying nuclear waste. Second, there are a limited amount of sites for storage (Putney 2008). This limitation means that burial must not be the only solution pursued, because it has limited capacity. This shows that burial fits well with a method that reduces future waste—a method like waste minimization.

Waste Minimization

The ethical problems with current nuclear waste storage are compounded by the increasing amount of nuclear waste being produced. Additionally, about 90% of the uranium in fuel cells is classified as waste after fuel cells stop efficiently producing electricity. These facts, in addition to the need for another solution beside burial, make waste minimization necessary. The reactor design changes needed for minimizing waste don’t entail additional risks or exorbitant costs. Moreover, minimizing waste contributes to the sustainability of nuclear energy, which will make it more popular and more ethically sound (Cugnon 2004).

In combination with geological storage, waste minimization represents a breakthrough in the ethical problem of current waste storage. Current waste storage is dangerous because of its magnitude, and waste minimization is capable of decreasing the surface storage the nuclear industry needs in the future (Bomboni, et al. 2008; Cugnon 2004). The most reasonable nuclear waste disposal strategy for the future is therefore a combination of burial and waste minimization.

Nuclear Waste in Space

BEP represents a possible future solution to the nuclear waste storage problem, but it will be a long time before anyone can say whether it is effective. It promises to be a clean technology—the only trash that is left in space is the small capsule containing the nuclear waste, and there is no potential for explosions in the atmosphere. BEP would require tremendous resources and a lot of time to develop, but if the technology can do what scientists predict, it represents the easiest and cheapest of the solutions to the nuclear waste problem. Nevertheless, BEP ought to be dismissed from consideration for now because it is so great a leap in technology. It is not possible to say with certainty that it would ever be possible to send our waste into space in this way. As a result, BEP is not a factor in the ethical problem humanity faces, because that problem is occurring right now and cannot wait such a long time for an unproven technology (Coopersmith 2006; Cugnon 2004; Myrabo 2001).

CONCLUSION

Nuclear power is an important part of the solution to humanity’s growing energy demand. As a result, humanity cannot ignore the problem of large and increasing nuclear waste stockpiles. Current storage of the waste stockpiles is at the surface, and the waste represents a threat to humans and the environment. Therefore, for nuclear energy to be viable in the future, a technological response to high-level nuclear waste is necessary. The response ought to include both nuclear waste minimization using reprocessing and more efficient power plants and geologic nuclear waste storage in deep underground repositories. The two methods combine to reduce the nuclear waste humans produce and effectively dispose of nuclear waste stockpiles. The solution represents a satisfactory solution to the ethical problem of high-level waste storage at the surface because it removes humans and the environment surrounding waste facilities from the contamination risk. The consequence of the solution is that nuclear waste is no longer a reason for countries to overlook nuclear energy in favor of untested energy sources.

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Good Afternoon Seniors. I remember not too long ago when I was a high school senior as well. I would get up at about six, shower and be on my way to those early morning classes. It’s amazing how I was never late to class and I never complained about getting up for my 7:30 class in high school, but now that I’m in college, even my 9:30 class seems very early. College is much different than high school in many ways. You all are the head of your school now because you are all seniors. You all are going to go out after this year and do great things in the world. It’s time for you all to lead the way. After you all graduate from college, some of you may be doctors, lawyers, and dentists, and maybe even some of you will be career students. I know that is a long time ahead of you to be thinking that far in advance, but it’s time to start preparing yourselves for the future. There are some things you should know before you engage in the adventures of college. Some of these things you may think you already know, and some of these things may even scare you. Whether or not you agree with what I am going to say, I do ask that you keep an open mind and explore the possibilities of truth in what I say.

The valedictorian of my class had said something very important to the graduating class that has stuck with me ever since. “College is your time to shine, go out and become a star!” (Sandvall). Barkley, the valedictorian, has had a tremendous influence in my life not only from that speech but just being a part of my life. She is a very intelligent and fun person to be around and she has always encouraged me to do well in school and I know has made me a much better person from when she first met me. I will never forget that quote and I will always work hard to make that quote true. I encourage all of you to go out and become stars as well, because we are the future leaders of the world.

We already know that all of you are going to become leaders. But why do you want to go to college? Is it for the common reason, “To get a high paying job?” That is not a bad reason at all. However, if that is the case, why not just enroll in a trade school and get a degree in half the time making just about the same amount of money? Wouldn’t that make more sense? So if you’re not going to college just to get a high paying job, then what else is college going to offer you that would make you so eager to attend? Most of you will go off to college and do very well, and I really hope that all of you do.

In a magazine article I was reading the other day, the author gave some very useful information about the future in the business world. He talked about the difficulties and changes that the business world will overcome in the near future and he very heavily stressed the importance of a college education. I distinctly remember this quote of his, “Most of these high paying jobs will be reserved for those with degrees” (Wharton 1). It is important that all of you strive to get a good college education so that you too can compete in the business world. You will need to work very hard in college to be able to do so.  So please listen to my speech today so that you will be able to understand more about what it will take to be successful in college.

First, let me start by talking about knowledge and what it is and who should have it. You may be wondering, as I once did, why we should be discussing knowledge. The topic of knowledge is not as general as I once thought. Knowledge involves a lot of things and they are all just as important as the next.

What is knowledge? Knowledge means something different to every one of you. There is no wrong definition of knowledge but simply incomplete definitions. We are all unique and all posses different skills and traits that make us who we are. I believe before anyone can start to form their definition of knowledge, they should hear others’ definitions so that they have more information to base their own on. Jeff Adam, my father, is a very successful businessman. He graduated at the top of his class and became an entrepreneur by starting his own very successful business. After interviewing my dad about his thoughts about knowledge, I came to discover that he had never really been asked that question either. After thinking for a while, he told me not what I wanted to hear about knowledge, but instead useful information about college. He said, “I learned three important things in college – to use a library, to memorize quickly and visually, and to drop asleep at any time given a horizontal surface and fifteen minutes” (Interview Adam). Let me vouch for him as well, that is absolutely true.

In my definition, knowledge is what makes up a person. It includes a person’s intelligence as well as how they use their intelligence. It is a person’s ability to make educated decisions based on what information they have. I believe that knowledge is the only thing that cannot be taken from you. Knowledge is continuously spreading around the world. It is never complete because each life event and experience adds to your knowledge. I was fortunate enough to have two parents and many teachers in my life that have affected my view on knowledge quite heavily. It wasn’t until my freshman year of college that I was ever asked to question what knowledge really is, and I am very thankful that I had been given that question because it has made me look deeper into the word and what it truly means. I encourage all of you to do the same.

Who should have knowledge? You may be wondering why I am asking this question but in the world today there are still many people who are functionally illiterate. Should they be denied the opportunity to learn because they live in a poor area or because their parents can’t afford their school expenses? You all were fortunate enough to come to this high school and get a good education, but there are many out there who can’t even write their name on a piece of paper. They can’t read the menu at a restaurant more or less read a book. So what can these people even do? They basically go through life doing what others tell them to do and think what others tell them to think. This is no way to live a happy life.

Fortunately you all are blessed with a decent education and will likely continue that education at college. Let me warn you though, there are many things that you need to know that they never told you in high school. I will do my best to inform you as well as describe to you the changes you will hopefully encounter throughout your college life. Hopefully these tips will help you all be more successful in college and ultimately your career.

First of all, you must learn to love reading. The easiest way to ace your classes is simply by reading your book. Showing up to class every now and then helps but more importantly is reading your book and studying the notes. I hated reading books in high school. The books in high school were usually long and about old authors that wrote about topics of no interest to me. I rarely ever actually read the books that were assigned because quite frankly, they just had too many uninteresting words on a page. Remember back in elementary, you had worksheets and rarely had to open a book. You could even get through middle school and high school without reading a single book. There are so many online resources that can summarize a book so that your teacher could never even tell the difference. I never had to read and I still made good grades….until I got to college. College is not a joke and not at all as easy to get through as high school was for me. They take freshman like me and assign two or three books to read by the end of semester just so they can wash out of a few of us. The tests over the books cannot be passed by summaries alone either, which inevitably forced me to actually read the books. This has taught me a valuable lesson though. Books actually increase your intelligence and they really aren’t even that boring if you can get into them. With all the reading I had to do this semester in college, I found a sanctuary spot that I do all my reading. It is the library. If you try to sit in your dorm or apartment and read there are just too many distractions. There’s just something about the silent environment with books all around you that just makes reading a book much easier and enjoyable. The main point is basically this, it is very important for you and your grade to read the books that are assigned to you. The same tricks we used to pull in high school, don’t work here, I’ve tried. So do yourself a favor and read the books on time and thoroughly. Don’t wait until the week before the essay to try and read a 300 page novel on economics, believe me, it’s can’t be done. Most importantly, do not resort to cheating.

I have a lot to say about cheating because I feel very strongly against it. Believe it or not, I used to be a slacker in high school. I actually thought of high school as a big social event that we took part in daily, not so much a learning institute. I really didn’t do that much homework, but I still managed to make good grades. High schools require attendance, so there was never a problem of me not going to classes. Everyone knew me and I was very friendly to all who knew me. High school was very easy to me, partly because I was in fact a cheater. I didn’t cheat on every test or cheat on every piece of homework, but any cheating at all is cheating. Occasionally I would forget about an assignment that was due, and I would copy it right before class and turn it in as my own work. There were even times during a test that I had not studied for that I would lean over and look at my neighbor’s paper. Closer to the end of my senior year I had even developed clever schemes to pass papers during a test. I probably spent more time planning how we could cheat for a test than actually studying for the test. I can’t stress enough to you all though how negatively that has affected my life.

Cheating is the wrong approach to anything. I didn’t know this at the time I was doing it, but cheating actually cheats you in more ways than one. Not only do you cheat the person you copied from because they did all the work and you simply stole the answers. You also cheat yourself because instead of knowing the information that your test scores show you do, you in fact know little to nothing about what the topic was about.

Another thing I must stress to you is that all courses build on each other. If you take an English course your freshman year, and take another your sophomore year, you can expect the information you learned in the freshman course will be in the sophomore course. So ultimately if you start cheating your freshman year, you are almost committed to cheating your sophomore year in order to sustain the average you want. Cheating is a very hard habit to break and I know it is from firsthand experience. I am not telling you all this so you can go out and develop clever schemes to cheat on all your tests, I am telling you this because if you cheated your way through high school as I did, you need to stop and think about if that is what you want to do in college. Unlike high school, colleges generally have a zero tolerance rule for cheating. If you get caught cheating on an exam in your class, you will most likely be dropped from the class and possibly suspended from the school. In high school of the few times I was caught cheating, I simply received a zero for the grade which really didn’t matter because we had numerous tests a semester anyway, it didn’t affect my grade much. In college, there are usually only three exams per semester. If you fail an exam, it is recommended that you consider dropping the course. Just be smart and don’t cheat. Study your material and prepare way in advance for your exams. Cheating is never the right answer, so be smart and study.

I know you don’t want me to talk about cheating any more so let’s move on then. Unfortunately for you all, there is a new Texas legislation that prevents you all from dropping a certain amount of courses. “The 80th Texas Legislature in the 2007 Legislative session passed SB1231 that limits the number of classes students can drop throughout their entire undergraduate career to six” (Accd 1). You will also be required to meet with your counselor before dropping any course. This is very important because it means that you must choose your courses wisely. After your six classes are used up, you can only receive passing or failing grades for the course, so choose wisely your courses.

I hope you all will take what I have told you today and use it to better yourselves when it is your turn to go to college. I know all of you are bright students and you will be very successful in life if you work hard for what you want and never give up. There may be times in college when you just want to give up and quit, but I encourage all of you to just stop, take a break, and keep trying. I would like to see all of you graduate with bachelor’s degrees in four years. I would like to then see all of you working the job of your dreams and making good money at the same time. These are simple goals you may achieve by simply putting forth the work and effort it takes. I hope all of you enjoyed my speech today. I would like to wish everyone good luck in college. I believe in each and every one of you all. God Bless.

Tags: school

Knowledge is not as basic as I once thought. I used to believe that knowledge is just what information you have “in your head,” but now, after reading essays about knowledge, I believe that there is much more that makes up knowledge.  Why should knowledge have one definition when it means something different to everyone? The essay by Jonathan Kozol, “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society,” informs readers of the illiteracy problem in the world and how it affects the economy. He goes on to talk about how ineffectual these illiterate individuals are in the world and he introduces the question of “What should we do with them?” (Kozol 46). Robin Tolmach Lakoff in the essay “The Grooves of Academe,” basically raises the question, “Why don’t schools just tell us how to be successful?” (Lakoff 347). Lakoff makes a very interesting point in his essay in which I will discuss further in my essay. The essay by Louis Menand, “What are universities for,” describes how universities require frivolous classes that students only take because they have to not because they want to. Why should someone take a course that does not appeal to them?

What really is knowledge? I believe there are many different definitions of knowledge and none that are more right than the other. Knowledge is so powerful that it cannot be generalized into a single definition. Before I had read any of these essays, I did generalize knowledge. However, after reading and discussing these essays so intently, I was amazed at what I found. I believe that knowledge is what we take it to be, not so much what everyone tells us. Knowledge can be gained from personal experiences, life changing events, from the parents, and really anything that makes us think differently. I believe that everyone has the power to make their own definition of knowledge and all of those definitions would be true to the person who created them.

So in my opinion, what is knowledge? I believe that knowledge is everything that makes up a person. Everybody has knowledge and most of the time they figure out how to use it efficiently. Even if I am the CEO of a Fortune Five Hundred company or a drug dealer on the streets, I still have knowledge and I am using it to my best interests. On the contrary, I do believe that everyone should strive to attain a higher level of knowledge so that they may benefit the economy better. I also believe that drug dealers and bums and homeless people have not utilized all their knowledge potential. On that same note I believe that people should turn to unethical business just to sustain a “happy” lifestyle. Kozol and I share very similar beliefs here because we both recognize that there is a problem at hand, but still do not see a progressive improvement.  So how should we go about helping these people to have better lives? “Do we possess the character and courage to address a problem which so many nations, poorer than our own, have found it natural to correct?” (Kozol 46). I believe that we should continue education our youth and continue offering rehab for those who need a fresh start. I believe any ambitious illiterate can become a functioning literate if they are able and willing to put forth the effort.

Who should have access to knowledge? I have already stated in my essay that I believe that knowledge is infinite and everyone at least has a limited amount of knowledge. However, the question of what level of knowledge should be a good level of knowledge to have still remains. I see a perfect world where everyone does their part in society so that as a whole we are basically good. To live in this utopia everyone must know the basics of reading and writing and a skill so that they could be beneficial to the world. In the world today, this is not the case. Many people today are denied many liberties because of their problem of illiteracy. Jonathan Kozol agrees very closely with me as demonstrated in this quote. “So long as 60 million people are denied significant participation, the government is neither of, nor for, nor by, the people” (Kozol 40). Basically, if we have too many illiterates in the society, the government will be simply run by those of the correct ethnicity, social class, or parent privilege. It is important to maintain a certain level of knowledge among all people. I think a good level of knowledge could be at least education through high school. If this were the case, we would have a much more efficient world.

I feel that our means of educating people today are adequate. From a very early age here in America, kids start off learning the basics of reading and writing all the way to complex algebra in high school. After high school the students may choose to seek higher education offered in colleges and universities. What really is this higher education though? There are many courses that are required for each different degree program but many of the courses are the same throughout the different degrees. Why should students have to take all these extra courses outside of their regular degree courses just to get the diploma?  In Menand’s essay, he describes how the Introduction to Poetry class was such a popular class (Menand 254). It was popular because it satisfied three requirements of the course curriculum. “It was a prerequisite for English department courses; it could be used as the final installment in a sequence of composition courses all students had to take; and, as a “humanities” elective (Menand 255). The course seems like a perfect choice to take for any student. He goes on to talk about that rarely any of the students who took that class actually took the class because they wanted to or were interested in poetry. What would be the point of such a class? If no one is excited about taking an Introduction to Poetry class, then why even offer the class at the school? I do think that a few of the courses that are basics at most colleges should be removed. It is important to still require English and Math because these courses will help people in their day to day life. When it comes to Texas Politics and various courses like that, I do not believe they are necessary. Not everyone wants to be a politician or wants to be active in politics. With that said, college is still very necessary to better ones education and knowledge. College opens many doors for people who graduate.

Who gets access to the higher level learning, though? It is important for some percentage of the population to strive for a higher level of education so that they may lead the world. I believe that anyone who is willing to work hard should be given an opportunity that would allow them to get a much higher education.

Knowledge learned in school, though, is not by any means the only knowledge that people should have. The knowledge that one may learn in school is a good start, but everyone should go out and seek on their own what it is that really motivates them. We can’t tell people to go learn to be a doctor, or go study petroleum, but we can give them information about these topics and hope that some people will be interested. Whatever motives to learn people have in them should be used as fuel to seek their ambitions. In my opinion, college education is very necessary, but on the other hand, so is creativity. If we pressure people into doing things they may not want to, then we may be losing out on something great that person may have invented. One’s intuition must be maintained so that we will continue to be a thriving world. College education opens doors and eyes for many people, but in doing so they should allow for the creative minds to do great things.

Colleges are giving out knowledge and information at enormous rates. By what other means should we distribute the knowledge? How should knowledge be shared? I believe that knowledge is all around us. Knowledge is what allows mankind to build skyscrapers, design computer programs, and engineer new cars. Knowledge helps us advance our society at speeds faster than ever imagined. Knowledge is constantly increasing and spreading. So with all this knowledge circulating, how should we go about educating the youth?

We have a very good education system today. Educating the children at a very young age gives them basic knowledge which they can use to figure out what knowledge means on their own.  Kids learn about the past and learn about current problems and events and when they are older they make their own decisions about things. Even though a person’s knowledge is heavily influenced by their early years of schooling, there are still other main areas knowledge comes from.

Knowledge is also taught by parents. My parents are probably the most influential sources that helped develop who I am today. If it wasn’t for my parents, I would not have had the necessary guidance it would have taken for me to get to college. They have influenced me in so many ways. Whether it was teaching me about the Alamo by taking a family trip to San Antonio, or buying me my first computer which turned out to be the start of my career, I have learned a lot of information from my parents.

My parents not only taught me information and showed me their views on ideas; they also instilled morals and good-will in me. Knowledge is not all about the hard facts and information that one possesses, but it is also very important how they use that information. Holding doors for the ladies, proper dinner etiquette, even showering daily, are all just acts of good-will that our parents instill in their children’s minds in belief that it will make their children better people. So how do the actions correlate with knowledge? Knowledge is how much people actually use of what they know. Everyone is made up of a lot of potential but only the ambitious ones will stand out in the world. We take what our parents had taught us and as we try to understand everything, we make decisions of our own. Therefore, we are constantly bettering ourselves and others around us.

So who stands to gain with such a heavy emphasis in the world about knowledge? The higher educational facilities gain because so many people fund their universities and colleges in hopes of getting a return of knowledge. Universities and college put such high costs on their education facilities in hopes to seclude the lower class from this kind of learning, which essentially keeps a balance in the world and forces only those who are ambitious to succeed. Who really stands to gain though? We do; the people who live in the world around the educated and the knowledgeable people. They gain from others’ work. Is it right for these people who do not choose to be as knowledgeable as others to just sit there and do nothing about it? It is not right for them, but if they are not motivated enough to participate, then is it right to force them?

What is at stake? It is essential that the world maintains a healthy balance between those knowledgeable people and other illiterate people. There would be constant challenges and possibly war if everyone too well educated. There has to be a percentage of the population that is willing to work the lower end jobs. I described early a utopia that consisted of knowledgeable people doing their part in society to make a better world. The truth is that can never happen. There will always be illiterate people, and there will always be people who don’t use their knowledge to the fullest potential. If there is ever a drastic change in the literates and illiterates in the world, there would most certainly be problems in the economy. That is why it is important to maintain a healthy balance between the two.

I have read many books and essays that have allowed me to make decisions about how knowledge affects the world and one book that I read changed my views to a great extent. The novel The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman describes how the world became flat and the factors and forces that were involved. He summarizes the events that led to the earth’s flattening in three different eras. Globalization 1.0 describes how enormous the earth was thought to be before Columbus founded the Americas. Contrary to popular belief about the Vikings living in the Americas prior to his sail, Friedman says the Globalization 1.0 occurred because of Columbus. After the Europeans discovered that the earth is in fact not endless, this as a result, began the flattening of the earth. The second Globalization, 2.0, was basically caused by the rapid increase in communications around the world. From the many fiber optic cables laid in the ocean to all the satellites that help link the world, all this contributed greatly to flattening our world. The final Globalization occurred when we began outsourcing so greatly. We developed work programs where we could outsource accounting and other work to the people of India and many other countries. The flattening of the world is not over though. Unfortunately this is probably just the beginning. So what is at stake with so many people having a great deal of knowledge? The world could completely change before us.

From the illiterates to the flattening of the world, my views on knowledge are in no way finished. I am just a freshman in college and I have much to learn about knowledge. However, I have learned a lot from researching these essays and other novels to contribute to the defining of my definition of knowledge. There is so much more to learn and I will do my part to learn it. My drive to attain higher levels of knowledge will continue to increase and expand, I know it has already, and it will continue forever.

Tags: school