Critical Thinking Gaining Knowledge

Question: Discuss about the Critical Thinking for Gaining Knowledge. Answer: Introduction: Gaining knowledge of the events that have occurred in past is always essential. People learn from their past mistakes. Even though I have little interest in science or engineering the events that occurred at Three Mile Island and at Chernobyl was of great importance. The accident that occurred in Chernobyl was more dangerous than that in The Three Mile Island. The accident and consequences caused in Chernobyl harmed many lives of not only present generation but also the future generation. However, it is not important to know the process that led to occurrence of such event in detail but it is essential to know what led to such events so that the same mistake will not be repeated. The accident that happened in Three Mile Island was minor as compared to Chernobyl disaster. However, it was the most serious nuclear accident that happened in United States. The accident at Three Mile Island was rates a five on the seven scale in international nuclear event scale. It was an accident with wider consequences (Zablotska 2016). The accident at Three Mile Island (TMI) was a great learning opportunity for the nuclear industries and the society that it was attempting to serve. The lessons learned from the event can be avoided in future if properly learned and identified. In United States, it took thirty years to finally begin new nuclear power plants. The accident not only harmed the people but also economy. United States had to bear great loss due to this occurrence. Hence, it is essential to keep knowledge of such accidents to avoid it in future (Guenthoer et al. 2015). The accidents in Three Mile Island and Chernobyl occurred due to failure of nuclear plants. However, there were differences in the two accidents. The accident at Chernobyl was a more serious accident as compared to the accident in Three Mile Island. The similarity between the two accidents was that the operator errors was thee contributor to the accidents in Chernobyl and Three Man Island. At Chernobyl the fission process went out of control that led to the explosion of the entire plant. However, at Three Man Island the heating of fission operators led only a part of it to melt. The entire operator did not explode because of which there was less damage. The other difference was that at TMI 17 Ci radioiodine was releases that some distance way from the people causing fewer amounts of radiation and damage to people (Mayhorn and McLaughlin 2014). However, at Chernobyl various types of radioactive elements were released into the atmosphere that spread over the wider causing larger damage to people. The gases released due to TMI event did not harm the future generation (Fushiki 2013). On contrary, the gases released at Chernobyl did not only hamper the present generation but also the coming future generation causing many illness and diseases that was unavoidable. However, the similarity between the two events was that both incurred due to accident at nuclear plants that gave a lesson for the future generation to be learned. The reactors and technology have no guarantee. Anything can happen anytime which is not under control of human. However proper safety measures can be taken in order to avoid such accidents to occur. Even if the accident cannot be stopped, it can be avoided. The spread of damage can also be avoided. The nuclear plants should not be situated in main city. It is always feasible to construct a nuclear plant and in outskirts places so that any accident does not have much impact on the people (Shrader-Frechette 2015). The meltdowns can be prevented by installing passive cooling system. It is not always possible that the reactors will always have a negative impact on the fission process. If a proper designed reactors are installed with a good safety measures then there is no harm in installing the reactors. It is essential for the operators to have proper knowledge of running the reactors so that any mishap can be avoided. This can be achieved by providing proper training to the operators o f the reactors. Adopting proper safety measures at nuclear plant is necessary to avoid the accident and the damage that it causes. Hence there are few fallacies in the underlying statement that it is possible to ensure that a reactor will always have a negative void coefficient so that the fission process cannot run out of control (Filburn and Bullard 2016). References Filburn, T. and Bullard, S., 2016. Three Mile Island. InThree Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima(pp. 29-41). Springer International Publishing. Fushiki, S., 2013. 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Zablotska, L.B., 2016. 30 years After the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident: Time for Reflection and Re-evaluation of Current Disaster Preparedness Plans.Journal of Urban Health, pp.1-7.