As both the demand and the cost of energy increases, our sources of energy – namely, non-renewable sources such as fossil fuels – keep on decreasing. This dilemma, along with the effects of pollution, rising population, and the resultant global warming has led to a veritable energy shortage throughout the world. Are there any practical solutions to this problem?
There are some suggestions that one solution would be to make further improvements on already existing sources of energy such as nuclear energy. At present, nuclear power supplies only 16% of the world’s energy. Certainly a clean source of fuel like nuclear energy can be exploited further, if its harmful effects (radiation) can be controlled.
Our traditional sources of energy – coal, oil, natural gas – are all limited in quantity as they are non-renewable. Further, these sources are very hard on the environment as they emit harmful green house gases that are one of the leading causes of global warming. Unlike these sources, nuclear power is completely emission-free and renewable. Nuclear power plants do not produce any air-pollutants or greenhouse gases.
The Westinghouse Electric Company recently introduced what can be described as the safest and most economically viable nuclear power plant in the world, called the AP1000. This is one of the biggest developments in nuclear energy in years and has given a lot of hope to several nations to finally get access to safe nuclear power.
This reactor, the AP1000, has been based on more than 20 years of research and development by the Westinghouse Company, which has spent countless millions perfecting and improving the major components used in current nuclear plants.
Essentially, the company used the established technology as a starting point, innovating and improving whatever technology already existed to create the world’s largest and safest power plant that can offer competitively priced, low polluting power to the world.
This innovation by the Westinghouse Company in the design and production of the AP1000 shows that alongside researching new sources of energy, existing sources should also be perfected to extract the most out of them.
