Many environmental leaders agree that nuclear energy should be used to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Scientists had a misplaced fear for nuclear energy 30 years ago. Climate change is today’s bigger concern. Ironically, the unfounded fear from the past could solve the current crisis. Global warming could be reversed by nuclear energy.
T. Boone Pickens, Al Gore, and T. Boone Pickens failed to mention nuclear solutions in their recent speeches. But, prominent environmentalists, such as Patrick Moore, a cofounder of Greenpeace and James Lovelock who wrote the Gaia theory and Patrick Moore, a cofounder of Greenpeace, insist that nuclear technology is a viable source of carbon-free electricity with an impressive safety record.
The numbers are the truth. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute (www.nei.orgThe nuclear power plants in America prevent carbon dioxide from reaching the atmosphere every year by preventing 700 million tonnes of it entering each year. This is equivalent to the exhaust from 100,000,000 cars.
While nuclear energy may be something people consider with caution, the technology of today is safer than coal-based electricity. Since the United States began its nuclear energy programs, no civilian has been killed by radiation.
According to the Bureau of Labor Standards it is actually safer to work in nuclear industries than in the manufacturing and real estate sectors.
Although nuclear energy plants do use water, they don’t consume it. The majority of water used in nuclear power stations returns to the source and never touches the reactor. The average nuclear plant uses between 26 to 42 gallons per household each day. American households use 315 gallons of water each day.
Nuclear “waste”It is also a misnomer. The U.S. currently works on creating a system for nuclear fuel recycling. Recycled nuclear fuel still retains 95 percent of its energy. Recycling could make it possible to turn nuclear energy into renewable energy.
Also, nuclear energy is very competitive in the electricity market. U.S. nuclear power stations operated at 92 per cent of their capacity in 2007. Electricity production costs were at an all-time low 1.76 cents per Kilowatt-hour. This compares to natural gas at 6.78cs and coal at 2.47cs.
Currently, the United States has a total of 104 nuclear power plants. They generate 20 percent of the nation’s electricity, and no carbon dioxide emissions.
