Atomic energy is a good alternative to replace fossil fuels. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Countries around the world must supply their people with energy in order to do such things as run vehicles and light homes and businesses. Nowadays, as the demand for more and more energy is drastically increasing and the supply of fossil fuels, such as gas and oil are quickly running out, more and more countries are turning to atomic energy as the answer to meet this demand. While some people believe that using atomic energy is more beneficial in order to replace fossil fuels, others think that it has too many negative effects.

There are many reasons why using atomic energy rather than fossil fuels can be advantageous. Firstly, atomic energy is more efficient than using fossil fuels since using even a small amount of this energy can power up large cities, such as Surabaya, for a week, whereas a huge amount of fossil fuels are needed in order to generate electricity for just one day. Further, atomic energy is much cleaner and is unlimited regarding sources, while fossil fuels are running out and extremely limited, taking millions of years to be reformed in the earth’s surface once they have disappeared.

Even though there are some advantages of using atomic energy to replace fossil fuels, there are some drawbacks which must be considered. For a start, using atomic energy can be extremely dangerous as hazardous waste and radiation causing cancer can be caused by accidental leaks in nuclear reactors. A good example was the case in 1996 in Indonesia when the nuclear reactor of the Indonesian Nuclear Energy had a leak resulting in some employees getting cancer. Moreover, the development of nuclear energy can also result in misuse because certain countries or certain terrorists may exploit it in order to develop nuclear weapons, which may increase the chance of a nuclear war in the future.

I personally believe that even though using atomic energy has some positive effects, the problems which can be caused by using it far outweigh these advantages. This is because even the slightest chance that terrorists may use atomic energy for nuclear weapons, especially in today’s unstable world, can cause great devastation and suffering. Therefore, the risk of atomic energy being used wrongly is why I disagree with its use as a replacement for fossil fuels.