Essay on Energy Resource Tar Sands and Nuclear Energy

Tar Sands are a mixture of clay sand water and black oil that is found in various places in the world such as Venezuela and under the Canadian Forests. Most of the world’s oil currently comes from tar sands, and oil is used for gasoline. Mining of tar sands is quite tough and hard to do. The sands cannot be pumped in their natural state. It must be mined through open pit mining techniques. After mining the sands are transported to and extraction plant where a hot water process separates the bitumen from sand, water and minerals. This process releases the bitumen from the oil sands and causes tiny air bubbles to attach to the bitumen droplets that float to the top of the separation vessel, where the bitumen can be skimmed off. (Oil Shale†¦show more content†¦Although its been said that we may only use oil for 10 to 15 more years before we hit our peak, If it is conserved it can be used for many more. Even though I believe it isn’t going to be conserved and never will be, it is a possibility. (Oil Shale and Tar Sands Program, 2012) Part 2 Nuclear energy is the energy that is released during nuclear fission or fusion also called a nuclear reaction. It is used to generate electricity energy is produced when a nucleus absorbs a neutron and splits into two lighter nuclei. The atoms consist of an electron cloud and a nucleus. (nuclearinfo.net) Although Nuclear Plants cost millions of dollars to produce they are very reliable for energy sources. All nuclear plants produce radioactive waste. To pay for the cost of storing, transporting and disposing these wastes in the United States a tenth of a cent per kilowatt-hour is added to electricity bills. When one nucleus decays 200,000,000 electron volts are produced, yet vary minimal amounts are collected. Making it possible to capture all the energy would end our need for fossil fuels. Yet the plants that we need must use thousands of tons of water everyday to cool the systems. Hydrogen is also needed for the splitting, yet hydrogen is at an unlimited supply. (nuclearinfo .net) On Saturday, 26 April 1986 a reactor at the Chernobyl Power Plant near Pripyat, Russia has a sudden power surge which caused mass damage. The Power Plant tried for immediateShow MoreRelatedFracking1198 Words   |  5 PagesAmerica (Favoring Production of Oil Sands and Opposing the Production of Tar Sands) Discovery about Tar/ Oil Sands Tar/ Oil sands are very important for determining the energy requirements of any country. Today we highly depend on the energy resources and could not succeed without considerable energy resources available to us to meet our daily production needs. 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