Nuclear Power : A Mainstream Source Of Electricity

Nuclear energy is the world's largest source of emission-free energy. Nuclear power plants produce no controlled air pollutants, such as sulfur and particulates, or greenhouse gases. "Renewables" like solar, wind and biomass can help. But only nuclear power offers clean, environmentally friendly energy on a massive scale. The use of nuclear energy in place of other energy sources helps to keep the air clean, preserve the Earth's climate, avoid ground-level ozone formation and prevent acid rain. “Currently, there are 103 commercial nuclear power plants producing electricity in the United States, located at 64 sites in 31 states. They are, on average, 24 years old, and

Firstly, the atomic incidents of Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Chernobyl in Russia are often mentioned as examples for nuclear plants being unsafe. In both cases failures of workers led to a meltdown in the reactors and increased radiation in the surrounding area (Henderson 12-17). And as the recent disaster in Japan shows, a nuclear crisis cannot only be caused by human mishaps, but also by unpredictable and untamable natural hazards. Consequently, nuclear crises cannot be predicted or prevented completely. Nuclear plants are, furthermore, considered uneconomical because in the eighties the construction costs of nuclear plants were underestimated and exceeded the estimation by $100 billion (Henderson 103). Therefore, the nuclear power opponents are arguing that nuclear power is burdening the American economy unnecessarily. According to the nuclear physicist Jeff Eerkens, antinuclear groups are also claiming that nuclear power is not necessary for the future since renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal power will be providing sufficient energy for the United States, and are at the same time much cheaper than the costly nuclear power plants (Eerkens 20). Over all, opponents consider nuclear power to risky and inefficient to “deserve further support from U.S. taxpayers” (Henderson 104).

•     Waste from nuclear energy stays radioactive for thousands of years. Great care has to be taken in storing this waste safely.

　　　　In the recent years, nuclear energy has gotten a comprehensive development. There are over 430 commercial nuclear power reactors operable in 31 countries, with over 370,000 MWe of total capacity. About 70 more reactors are under construction, and these numbers are still rising up (World Nuclear

Nuclear power plants are a safe, clean and reliable source of energy production. They are uniquely qualified to meet the growing demand for energy in the USA.

America’s nuclear energy plants are — by a wide margin — the nation’s largest source of carbon-free power. They produce clean, reliable electricity as well as well-paying jobs. Although several dependable nuclear plants have closed in recent years for economic reasons, nuclear energy is getting a fresh look for its ability to produce vast amounts of power without emitting greenhouse gases. And with new reactor designs, both big and small, scientists and technologists are re-engineering the future of nuclear energy for everyone’s benefit.

The use of fossil fuels as a primary source of power is poisoning our world, and nuclear power is just the way to stop this. Nuclear power is using the process of nuclear fission to create electricity. Nuclear fission is the splitting of a uranium atom to release massive amounts of energy. When this process takes place in a nuclear reactor, the energy is used to superheat water which is pumped through pipes also submerged in water which then boils. The pressurized water vapor is used to turn turbines that produce electricity. Nuclear power is one of the cleanest, safest, most reliable and economically beneficial sources of power, and it needs to be considered as a substitute for fossil fuels. Nuclear power unfortunately has been given a bad name, but is actually an important resource that should be utilized by the U.S. and the rest of the world.

According to Community Science Action Guides, nuclear power plants are cheaper to run, require smaller area than its competitors, and produce the most energy than environmental impact ratio. Nuclear power plants should be used in the United States based on three reasons: spatial area/location of use, cost efficiency, and environment friendly. To prove that nuclear power plants is a better energy solution, it will be compared to other major energy resources such as wind turbines, solar farms, dams, and biomass technologies.

The primary reason that people intend to build a nuclear power plant is the cost of nuclear energy. The number of nuclear power stations increased dramatically during the first oil crisis. During that time, the nuclear energy is taken as a substitution of fossil fuels with reasonable cost. Governments were afraid that the high oil price in the future would affect economics, especially for those industrialized countries who have a lack of natural resources such as Japan and some countries in Europe. Since the nuclear stations can operate for a fairly long period, typically 40 to 60 years, the lifetime cost of nuclear-generated electricity is low and can be very competitive at a low price per unit energy produced. Also, majority of the cost of nuclear energy is incurred during construction and preparation before it starts operating. The cost of uranium affects little to the total cost of nuclear energy, so not like a thermal power station, which is sensitive to the price of coal, natural gas or oil, the electricity price from a nuclear power plant will be pretty stable. These advantages on cost will benefit both industry and people’s living. A report from Mckinsey about energy in Japan shows that after the Fukushima accident, because of the shutdown of nuclear power plants, household electricity prices have increased by more than 50% from 10 ₵/kWh to 16₵/kWh. [27] The rise of electricity price may be a result of power shortage. This means

You need 400000 cubic yards of concrete in making a nuclear power plant, and 66000 tons of steel. There's 300 miles of electric wiring, and 130000 electrical components There's 3500 workers at the peak construction of a nuclear power plant, and two to four billion dollars to build a nuclear power plant. There’s 400 to 700 jobs in a nuclear power plant, and 470 million dollars of energy made in a year at a nuclear power plant.

Any positive attributes nuclear reactors and energy have can only be realized once the reactors have been built. This is one of the main problems with nuclear power. Nuclear reactors are very expensive to build and up keep. Not only

There are other alternatives to nuclear energy. One alternative is geothermal energy. To produce electricity, geothermal energy uses the Earth’s hot water and steam from under the ground to turn turbine generators. This hot water and steam is accessed by drilling wells deep into the earth. This type of energy is very clean because it does not burn fuel. It has no smoky emissions, just water vapor. The United States Department of Energy says geothermal energy prevents 22 million tons of carbon dioxide, 80,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, and 200,000 tons of sulfur dioxide being emitted into the air (Cothran 140-41). Geothermal energy is already being used for many things such as industry, agriculture, and heating. “Because geothermal energy is a clean, economical method of heating buildings, geothermal district heating is becoming more popular in many places.” Reykjavik, Iceland has the world’s largest geothermal district heating system (Cothran 141-44). It is renewable as rainfall and snowmelt constantly supply new water each year to geothermal reservoirs. The heat in geothermal energy is from within Earth where the heat is continuously radiated. The United States Department of Energy classified this as a renewable energy source (Cothran 145). Using geothermal energy conserves fossil fuels and uranium that are more exhaustible and polluting. Direct use of geothermal water limits burning 830 million gallons of oil or 4.4 million tons of coal every year. Geothermal energy is a better long term investment, renewable, and its cost is stable and predictable (Cothran 145,

As reactors get more complicated, construction time and the cost of the plant will only increase exponentially. This leads to cutting edge technologies becoming obsolete during the construction process, safety features suddenly becoming inadequate, and large, expensive renovations required to make the power plant functional. Throwing millions of dollars into renovating an already multimillion dollar “state of the art” reactor is not fiscally logical. This never ending cycle makes nuclear reactors the least cost efficient form of clean energy.

As each year passes, more and more electricity will be made as a result of increased nuclear power plants around the world. The economic benefits of nuclear energy are equally advantageous as the environmental aspects.

The world's natural resources are being consumed at an alarming rate. As these resources diminish, people will be seeking alternative sources by which to generate electricity for heat and light. The only practical short-term solution for the energy/pollution crisis should be nuclear power because it is available, cleaner and safer.