The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster Research Paper

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster - Research Paper Example However, it is notable that the success of hydropower production is affected by weather variations. Dry conditions lead to water loss through evaporation and also a reduction of water levels in the rivers due to lack of rainfall. This means that there is low availability of water to fill the dams to the required capacity hence reducing the velocity necessary to turn the turbines. Consequently, less power is produced and when that happens, consumers are forced to contend with the possibility of power rationing. Similarly, during heavy rainfall, a lot of silting occurs in the dams and this limits the capacity of the dams to hold sufficient amount of water thereby disrupting power generation (Sherman, 2006). Building of dams requires significantly large chunks of land. This means that displacement of communities may have to take place in order to create space for the construction of dams, which may necessitate compensation thereby raising the initial cost of building these dams. By year 2000, statistics indicate that close to 80 million people had been relocated to allow dam construction worldwide (Sherman, 2006). In addition, arable land may have to be utilized for this purpose and this has the potential of hampering food security in the alienated regions. It may also be important to note that where dams are constructed near human settlement, catastrophes may occur as a result of dam failure. Case in point is the Banqio dam failure in 1975, whereby more than 100000 people lost their lives whereas millions lost their livelihoods after typhoon Nina hit China resulting to unexpected widespread flooding. Several dams including Banqio collapsed as a result and an area of approximately 12000 square kilometers downstream was submerged (Sherman, 2006). Nuclear energy is considered as a viable alternative to hydroelectricity and fossil fuels. It