Invitational speech

Thuan Trinh, Ricardo Romero

Prof. Menjivar

Coms. 151/L

12/12/15

General Purpose: To invite my audience to engage in dialogue

Specific Purpose: To invite my audience to discuss Nuclear Power.

Nuclear Problems
Introduction (2 people of your group should state the introduction)

I. U.S. electricity from nuclear energy in 2014: 19.5 percent, with 797.1 billion kilowatt-

hours generated.("US Nuclear Power Plants)

II. I want to invite you to discuss about the nuclear problem

III. First we talk about the problem and why Nuclear power is a problem, then we shall

talk about some solutions that have been implemented to fight the problem.

Body

I. Nuclear Power

A. The problem is that even though nuclear power is a good power source there are a lot of

withdraws within it.The problems include the potential harm that the could occur if a nuclear

disaster was to happen, it produces nuclear waste, and can lead to some climate change.

1. ...climate change and a reliable future energy supply. It will also

result in the continued production of dangerous nuclear waste and an

increased risk from terrorism, radioactive accident and nuclear

proliferation. (GreenPeace)
(Transition: Now that I tell you the problem of nuclear energy, let Thuan introduces you to the

first possible solution for the problem)

II. Solution #1 (Using Alternative Energy-Thuan)

A. Instead of using nuclear energy to produce electricity, we can use renewable energy such as

solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and water. Those kinds of energy can be used in the future

regardless of how much we use them now. They are also good for the environment. They dont

emit carbon-dioxide when used, so they wont cause global warming. The energy from

renewable sources is huge and enough to provide for the entire population. For example,

according to American Energy Independence, every hour, the sun radiates more energy onto the

earth than the entire human population uses in one whole year

(americanenergyindependence.com). In addition, technology now allows people to convert solar

energy to electricity, the form of energy Americans use every day.

1. Many countries in the world are trying to invest in renewable

energy because of two reasons. The first reason is that investment in

energy has a long-term effect. It eventually can replace the energy

provided by fossil fuel. According to Institute for Energy Research,

renewable energies provide nearly 10% energy consumption of the U.S.

in 2013 (InstituteforEnergyResearch.org). The second reason is that

those countries want to be less dependent in oil. For example, we can

easily see solar panels while moving on the streets in the U.S. which

means the use of renewable energy is increasing.

a. For wind power only, according to U.S. Department of Energy, in 2014, the U.S. wind

power capacity to nearly 66 gigawatts, which ranks second in the world and meets 4.9 percent on
the U.S. end-use electricity demand in an average year (energy.gov). Hydroelectric alone

provides 6.3% total electricity generation of the U.S. (instituteforenergyresearch.org). Renewable

energy can definitely replace nuclear power in the future.

2. Tell us the benefits/Drawbacks of it

a. Benefits

Renewable energy helps reduce the cost of energy production, and they also help to

protect our environment for the future.

A zero-CO2 U.S. economy can be achieved within the next thirty to fifty years without

the use of nuclear power. (Makhijani)

Small solar panels can easily be installed at individuals homes and help reduce the

energy consumption price.

b. Drawbacks

Solar cells, wind turbines, and biomass-for-energy plantations can never replace even a

small fraction of the highly reliable, 24-hours-a-day, 365-days-a-year, nuclear, fossil fuel

power stations.

Renewable energy depends heavily on the weather; any small change in weather can

reduce the production of these energies.

Research and manufacturing of renewable energies require a lot of money, and the results

can only be seen in following decades.

(Transition: Now that I tell you one solution for the nuclear problem, which is to use alternative

energy, Ricardo will describe the second solution)

III. Find better way to get rid of nuclear waste. (Ricardo)

 A. A solution to the problem that is nuclear power would be to find a better way to get rid

of nuclear waste. One of the big reasons to why this is a problem is because in many cases

nuclear power plant do not get rid of nuclear waste properly, affecting people and environment.

1. Some nuclear power plants have started to implement this solution by

recycling the nuclear waste, because the nuclear waste is not useless in the contrary a

high percentage of the nuclear waste can be recycle. This is done by using a method

known as PUREX which isolates uranium and plutonium from nuclear waste.

a. A key, nearly unique, characteristic of nuclear energy is that used

fuel may be reprocessed to recover fissile and fertile materials in order to provide

fresh fuel for existing and future nuclear power plants. Several European

countries, Russia and Japan have had a policy to reprocess used nuclear fuel,

although government policies in many other countries have not yet come round to

seeing used fuel as a resource rather than a waste(World Nuclear Assocation)

2. What are its benefits/drawbacks?

a. Benefits

a. The nuclear waste is being recycled and therefore there is less nuclear

waste.

b. Nuclear power plants are more efficient because they are able to utilize all

their resource to their potential and get more energy out of them.

c. Nuclear waste that is no longer recyclable decays into harmlessness a lot

faster. (Touran)

b. Drawback

a. There is still nuclear waste produce that is not able to be reused.

 b. There is no safe way of getting rid of the leftover waste as a result it would

still affect the environment.

(Transition: now that you know the solutions for nuclear problem, let Thuan summarize what we

talk about today)

Conclusion (Thuan)

I. Today, we tell you the problems with nuclear power. Then, the first solution is to use

alternative energy to replace nuclear plants. The second solution is to find a better way to dispose

nuclear waste.

II. We all see the need of replacing and making nuclear power less harmful to our

environment. It can help us to achieve the goal that is to maintain a healthy environment for the

future.

III. I would like to know your ideas about our solutions or your new solutions that you

think will work to solve nuclear power problem. (Ricardo)

I want to ask you that:

What are your ideas about solutions that we talked about?

and What are other solutions you have and think that they can help to solve the problem?

Work Cited

"2014 Wind Technologies Market Report." Department of Energy. The White House, Aug. 2015. Web.

11 Dec. 2015.

Americas Solar Energy Potential. AmericanEnergyIndependence.com

AmericanEnergyIndependence.com, Nov. 2010. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.

Makhijani, Arjun. "Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for US Energy Policy," Science for

Democratic Action. Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, Jul. 2007. Web. 11 Dec.

2015.

Solar. instituteforenergyresearch.org Institute for Energy Research, Feb. 2014. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.

Touran, Nick. "Recycling Nuclear Waste and Breeder Reactors." What Is Nuclear Recycling? What Is

Nuclear, Mar. 2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.

"World Nuclear Association." Processing of Used Nuclear Fuel. World Nuclear Association, Nov.

2015. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.

"Nuclear Power - the Problems." Nuclear Power. Green Peace, 15 Nov. 2006. Web. 12 Dec.

2015.

"US Nuclear Power Plants." U.S. Nuclear Power Plants. Nuclear Energy Institution, Jan. 2014.

Web. 12 Dec. 2015.