Statement to Justin Trudeau:
Although not a lot, around 15 percent of Canada’s energy is nuclear. And that is not necessarily horrible, since it releases less greenhouse gasses than solar energy, but there are major risks to it. If we try to lower the number of nuclear reactors in major places like Quebec, it would be safer. A good alternative would be hydropower, since in the long run it is cheaper, although it costs a lot to build, it also has little to no greenhouse gasses. Hydropower also has its downsides, like disturbance of wildlife, dammed rivers preventing fish travel down or upstream and the cost of building it. Overall, I think it would be better to replace some of the nuclear power plants with hydropower because Canada already uses hydropower in other places like British Columbia, and in the long run it would be safer than nuclear energy.
Question I asked myself:
Is there another type of energy?
Hydropower is a great alternative energy instead of nuclear power, its requirements are only flowing water, and it is renewable energy. Canada already uses hydropower . And in Quebec there is over 4,500 rivers and lakes.
Why nuclear energy is bad?
Nuclear energy is bed because of the risks of it, although it doesn’t produce a lot of greenhouse gasses, but not handled correctly it can cause a disaster, like Chernobyl and Fukushima.
Are there any downsides to hydropower?
Hydropower facilities are very expensive to build, they dam rivers and prevent wildlife to move down or upstream and overall disturbance of wildlife, and there are greenhouse gasses during the construction, but not a lot when hydropower runs.
Why is Hydropower good?
In the long run, hydropower is very cheap to maintain, it is able to be easily stored, in the comparison of different renewable options, hydropower is more reliable, and it helps with water control and counts as a water source.
Process I used to investigate the topic:
I first asked myself questions, mostly the why, what, good and bad. And then I used google to search for it, I made sure the sites were reliable and added what I thought was important in my own words.
How I verified information I found:
I first looked if it was an official school or official company/provincial website that can be trusted, then I looked in other websites to check if the statements were true, after that I looked if there was any cited sources to shady websites and if the information were outdated. If all was clear, I used the source I found.
Sources:
Hydro power: https://www.studentenergy.org/topics/hydro-power
Nuclear energy: http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2016/reconsidering-risks-nuclear-power/
Information about nuclear energy in Canada: https://www.cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca/eng/reactors/power-plants/index.cfm
Images:
Photo by Alex Bracken from Pexels