The discovery of nuclear energy seemed a "bright" idea in the beginning, but turned out to be a hazard for us all. First of all, the nuclear bomb is the most destructive device in the history of mankind. There are also two other factors which endanger us and our environment around us. These two factors are the nuclear power plants and the clean-up of nuclear waste.

Nuclear energy is the energy contained in the nucleus of an atom that is released in a nuclear reaction. It is undoubtedly the most powerful source of energy that exists right now. It wasn't until this very century that scientists learned to obtain this form of energy; however, when they obtained it, they did not know it could be controlled and made useful or how it could be a threat. Scientists first started studying the atom for knowledge about the universe. The discovery of nuclear energy began with the study of radioactivity in 1896 by Antoine Henri Becquerel (1852-1908), a French physicist. Albert Einstein's famous equation "E=MC2" (1921) led to the discovery of nuclear energy, but Einstein himself said that nuclear energy could never be controlled.

Lord Ernest Rutherford continued Becquerel's studies in 1919. Still, the use of nuclear energy was not proven until 1945 when the first atomic bomb was tested in New Mexico. The explosion of the atom bomb is created by fission, or the splitting of uranium or plutonium atoms into two lighter atoms. A free neutron from one atom collides with another uranium atom. The collision causes the uranium atom to split into two smaller atoms. This fission releases two spare neutrons and 32 picowatts (32 million millionths of a watt) of energy. The two freed neutrons collide with two more atoms and undergo the same reaction. In this way 1lb (0.45kg) of U-235 can release over 36 million million watts of energy.

In a nuclear explosion there is immediately a blinding flash of bluish-white light and ultra-violent light. The surrounding air is then heated to 18,000,000 degrees fahrenheit (10,000,000 degrees celcius) and creates a fireball. The fireball generates radiant heat that travels at the speed of light. The wave of heat is followed by the blast, in the form of a pressure wave moving at 1150ft (350m) per second. Part of the wave is reflected up by the ground. Where the reflected wave catches up with the original wave, the pressure is doubled and the "match wave" is formed. The overpressure of the blast wave is followed by a negative pressure phase that draws winds up to 620mph (1078km/h) into the destroyed area. This corresponds with the upward movement of the fireball and hot gases. If the fireball has touched the ground, dirt and debris are sucked into the rising column of hot gases and smoke, and the "mushroom cloud" is formed. The fireball will not necessarily touch the ground, as nuclear bombs are most effective when exploded in an "air burst" from 2000 to 50,000ft (0.6 to 15.2km) above the ground. The distruction of the nuclear blast is total. Nothing in the vicinity of such an explosion is able to survive.

Since the 1950's, when nuclear weapons reached present overshadowing prominence in world politics, there has been a general trend away from single warheads of huge power and towards multiple warheads of increasing accuracy. More than any other type of weapon, the success of nuclear arsenals is to be judged primarily in the effectiveness of their threat as opposed to the overall dangers of their use. Nuclear weapons may be delivered three main ways.They may be dropped from an aircraft, used as an artillery shell, or be used as the payload of a self-propelled missile. Nuclear missiles may be launched from land, sea, or air. Earlier nuclear missiles carried only one warhead. In the 50's and 60's missiles were large in megaton range. Now the accent is on smaller warheads delivered more accurately. Multiple Re-entry Vehicles (MRVs) are designed to deliver several warheads to one large target, in a saturation effect. MRVs are already being replaced by the major powers with those of MIRV and MARV types. MIRV is a Multiple Independantly-targeted Re-entry Vehicle. It is a "bus" containing multiple warheads and usually some decoy devices to mislead enemy defenses. As the vehicle begins to descend, warheads and decoys are ejected toward seperate targets which can be scores of kilometers apart. MARV is a Maneuverable Alternative-target Re-entry Vehicle which differs from MIRV in that each warhead had its own rocket and computer and can change course to a preselected alternative target if enemy Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) defenses are encountered. MIRV and MARV have multiplied the threat posed by each delivery missile.

The four tactical roles for nuclear weapons are battlefield support, anti-ship weapons, nuclear depth charges, and anti-aircraft missiles. Apart from Britain and France, all NATO and Warsaw Pact members would need US or Soviet permission to use nuclear weapons. Third World countries now possess many nuclear capable launch systems, but for most of them reliable miniaturized nuclear warhead technology and accuracy is less easily acquired. Without the Cold War we would not be nearly as advanced on the development of nuclear weaponry.

The Cold War was a post-1945 struggle between the United States and its allies against the group of nations led by the Soviet Union. Direct military conflict did not occur between these two superpowers, but intense economic and diplomatic struggles erupted. Different interests led to mutual suspicion and hostility in an escalating ideological rivalry.

U.S. officials, concerned over Soviet pressures against Iran and Turkey, interpreted a 1946 speech by Stalin as declaring ideological war against the West. In 1947 the president proposed the Truman Doctrine, which had two objectives: to send U.S. aid to anticommunist forces in Greece and Turkey, and to create a public consensus so Americans would be willing to fight the "cold war". He achieved both goals. That same year, journalist Walter Lippmann popularized the term "cold war" in a book of the same name. In Congress there was a series of highly publicized inquiries into pro-Communist activity in the United States. The best-known investigator, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, gave his name to an era of intense anticommunism. In 1948 the United States launched the $13 billion Marshall Plan to rebuild Western and Central Europe. The Chinese Communists signed an alliance with Stalin, but the United States refused to recognize the new regime. In Japan, then under U.S. control, economic development was accelerated to counter Asian communism. When Communist North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, Truman sent the American military into action. The conflict ended three years later in a truce that left the prewar border intact. In 1953 Stalin died and Truman left office, but both sides continued to struggle over Europe. The USSR tried to protect Communist East Germany from serious population loss by building the Berlin Wall in 1961. Each superpower also attempted to gain influence over emerging nations in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. A serious crisis arose in 1962 when the USSR placed missiles in Cuba, their new ally. President John F. Kennedy threatened nuclear retaliation, and the Soviets withdrew the missiles in return for Kennedy's promise not to invade Cuba.

Sobered by this crisis, the Soviets were also weakened when the Chinese split from Moscow and the East Europeans grew restless. Nationalism was proving stronger than communism. The United States, meanwhile, was fighting the Vietnam War, a bloody military action that cost 57,000 American lives in a failed effort to retain South Vietnam. In addition, the postwar economic superiority of the United States was challenged by Japan and West Germany. By 1973 the two stumbling superpowers had agreed on a policy of détente; it was an attempt to cool the costly arms race and slow their competition in the Third World. Howevber, Détente ended by 1980 as Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan to save a Marxist regime. Newly elected U.S. President Ronald Reagan began a massive arms buildup including huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons. The nuclear arms race was on again posing a threat to the entire planet if a nuclear strike and counter-attack should occur.

In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev, representing a new generation of Soviet leaders, came to power in the USSR. He and Reagan agreed to cut back the superpowers' presence in Europe and to moderate ideological competition. Tensions eased as Soviet troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan. In the early 1990s Gorbachev largely cooperated with the U.S. military effort to defeat Iraq's aggression in the Middle East. The "cold war" ended in Europe as the newly freed East European nations elected non-Communist governments and the two Germanys became one, the arms race was cut back, and ideological competition decreased as communism was discredited. U.S. President George Bush declared the need for a new world order to replace the superpower rivalry that had divided the globe and fueled the "cold war".

According to Helen Caldicott, a nuclear opponent, she says that during the "cold war" "America and Russia together have created the world's largest cover-up in the history of the world. The legacy of "cold war" nuclear bomb production translates into a hot war of contaminated food, air, and water. This is true for us and for all future generations of humans, plants, and animals. Because of the "cold war" nuclear power is now by far the most expensive form of electricity production, if one calculates the cumulative cost of taxpayer subsidies to the industry at each step of the fuel chain, from uranium mining to the storage of radioactive waste." The rapid build up of nuclear weapons in the world during the Cold War contributes greatly to the problems we now face in the field of nuclear energy.

Besides the nuclear weapons threat, other problems have occurred at the nuclear power plants which generate electricity for the process of nuclear fission. One of the major by-products is plutonium. Plutonium, which has a symbol of Pu, an atomic weight (or mass number) of 244, and an atomic number of 94, is a radioactive metallic element that is used in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. The element is one of the transuranium elements in the actinide series of the periodic table. Isotopes of plutonium were first prepared and studied by the American chemist Glenn T. Seaborg and his associates at the University of California at Berkeley in 1941. Trace amounts of the element have since been found in uranium ores, but plutonium is prepared in relatively large quantities today in nuclear reactors. Chemically, plutonium is reactive, its properties somewhat resembling those of the rare earth elements. The silvery metal, which becomes slightly yellow through oxidation caused by exposure to air, exists in six varying crystalline forms and has four different oxidation states. The metal gives off heat because of its radioactivity; 15 different isotopes of plutonium, ranging in mass number from 232 to 246, are known. Plutonium melts at about 641° C (about 1186° F), boils at about 3232° C (about 5850° F), and has a specific gravity of 19.84. Plutonium has a half-life of 24,360 years, which means it will not lose its deadly power for many generations. It is an extremely hazardous poison due to its high radioactivity and it is a carcinogen. A carcinogen is a cancer-causing agent. Plutonium, which is a man-made substance, is deadly to anyone who is exposed to it. Therefore, man has made his own deathtrap.

This "deathtrap" has caused many severe accidents in the past. One accident relates to the Karen Silkwood story which is quoted from the book Raw Deal by Ken Smith. "Karen Silkwood was a laboratory analyst at the Kerr-McGee plutonium processing plant in central Oklahoma. It was not a great place to work: radioactive contamination was everywhere, safety records were routinely falsified, and deadly plutonium was disappearing - no one knew where. Silkwood, outraged, took it upon herself to gather documentation proving as many of the abuses as she could, intending to give the evidence to a reporter from the New York Times. She never made it. Silkwood was found dead inside her car, which had crashed on the way to her meeting with the Times reporter. Local authorities claimed she had been drunk or stoned - an odd way to meet a reporter - but later investigations indicated that she had been purposefully run off the road. In effect, Silkwood had been murdered. No one was ever indicted for Silkwood's death, although in the weeks preceding it she had been mercilessly harassed by Kerr-McGee and local law enforcement officials. The documents she had been carrying were never found." A theory has since been stated that the Kerr-McGee corporation placed a bit of plutonium in the refrigerator of her apartment. Later it was proven true that there were traces of plutonium in her refrigerator. After a court battle between her family and Kerr-McGee, the family was awarded a monetary settlement. The Karen Silkwood story is undoubtedly a mystery.

People are concerned about the effects that nuclear power plants have on the environment. We are especially worried about the possibility of "meltdowns." A meltdown occurs when the radioactive material melts down straight through the core and causes a nuclear explosion, releasing deadly elements into the air.

In a nuclear power plant the process of breaking down by giving off radiations is called radioactive decay. Radioactive decay is a source of nuclear energy. Accidents can occur during such a complicated process. One accident which happened on March 28, 1979 began at Three Mile Island (TMI) Unit2, which was the worst commercial nuclear reactor accident in the history of the United States. Another occurred at Chernobyl, the worst commercial nuclear reactor accident in the history of the world which happened on April 28,1986. Chernobyl happened in the USSR and the area around Chernobyl is now uninhabitable due to the devastation. The cancer rate, since this disaster, has increased tremendously. Between the cover-ups or "accidents" as seen in the Silkwood case and the disasters or accidents at some nuclear power plants, it is evident that problems exist in the nuclear energy program.

Another problem we must deal with arising fom the production of nuclear energy is the clean-up of nuclear waste. Radioactive wastes come in many different forms. For example, one form of radioactive waste is contained in the protective suits on nuclear plant employees. The creation of huge quantities of long-lived radioactive waste is the most formidible problem facing the nuclear power plant industry today. There are several levels of radioactive waste. When plants were first being promoted it was assumed that waste could be reprocessed or buried somehow so waste didn't seem as such a problem back then, but, unfortunately, finding safe ways of storing radioactive wastes so that they do not leak radiation into the environment has proved more difficult than anticipated.

Radiation affects the water, air, soil, animals, humans, and plants. It would take 3,000,000 years for radioactive waste stored in the United States to decay to background levels and the United States alone produces 3,000 tons of high-level waste. The amount of spent fuel removed annually from 100 reactors would fill a football field to a depth of 1ft. When spent fuel is removed from a reactor core, it still emits millions of rems of radiation. Nuclear power plants produce more thermal pollution than fossil-fuel plants, but less air pollution when they operate properly.

In December 1982, the United States passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to deal with the problem of wastes that had accumulated for almost 40 years and that continue to accumulate. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act calls for permanent storage in deep underground mines or repositories. After the waste is stored, it must be carefully guarded to prevent it from being dug up for unauthorized uses. In 1996 the U.S. Senate agreed to establish a temporary nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Nuclear interests complain that the facility is necessary because their plants have run out of storage space, but environmentalists argue that moving radioactive waste across states is dangerous.

So far burying the nuclear wastes is one of the very few things the government can think of. This highly dangerous material is very unsafe and has affected all humankind. It has also affected the rest of our world as well. It is the most worried about problem of nuclear energy in the United States.

The most important and difficult problem is the disposal of plutonium. There are three major plans being considered to solve this problem. On etemporary solution is the burial in sealed canisters in underground vaults, but this does not solve the problem. These canisters leak releasing nuclear waste into our water, soil, and air. Another disposal method for plutonium is a process called "vitrification" or "glassification." This is a method to package high-level waste by melting it with glass and pouring the molten material into impermeable containers. The newest plan would be to convert plutonium into MOX (mixed-oxide) fuel which would help generate power at nuclear power plants. An interesting fact is that locally the Savannah River Site is trying to become the site of both the MOX and vitrification missions.

In conclusion, the wonderful discovery of the energy that could be generated from the atom has presented many questions to modern society. Although we have seen progress in the production of nuclear weaponry for our security and defense, and nuclear development as a source of electric power, we have witnessed many difficulties. The nuclear energy situation will continue to be a source of controversy--progress or annihilation? It is amazing that something so big like the nuclear explosion and other nuclear hazards could come out of something so small as the atom.