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Nuclear energy, good or bad? The argument about nuclear energy is difficult. Some people say it’s good for the environment, while others say it’s the worst. So, let’s dive deeper into this argument and try to understand what nuclear energy is, and if it’s good or bad. How does it work? Most of the reactors were built between 1970 and 1985 when the price of oil and gas became very expensive due to the conflicts in the middle east. This grabbed the attention of a lot of investors. But they still had to choose which reactor to build, since there were a lot of options. The candidate that won was the light water reactor, with its only advantage being that it wasn’t terribly expensive.
The basic principle is simple: a controlled chain reaction warms up water which can be used to make electricity. But it wasn’t the safest nor the most efficient though, which made it quite unpopular with scientists. So now there’s the choice, move away from nuclear energy or replace the aging reactors with more efficient, safer but more expensive reactors. Why it is terrible?
First, nuclear energy is intimately connected with nuclear weapons. It’s almost impossible to develop peaceful nuclear energy without accidentally contributing to weapon technology. In forty years, five countries have developed nuclear weapons with the help of peaceful reactor technology.
Secondly, we have nuclear waste and pollution. Spent nuclear fuel is not only radioactive but also poisonous due to elements like plutonium. It loses its harmfulness only very slowly over thousands of years. Though, nuclear waste can be reprocessed to make plutonium fuel. But this new fuel is hardly ever used for energy-making purposes, they rather use the fuel for the making of bombs.
Nuclear waste also needs to be stored somewhere, where it will be safe for thousands of years. Lastly, there are accidents and disasters. In over 65 years of the use of nuclear energy, there have been 7 nuclear disasters. This makes it so large amounts of land are unfit for human inhabitation and thousands get cancer from the radiation.
Why it is wonderful. First, nuclear energy saves lives. It may be counterintuitive, but a big study by NASA has shown that nuclear energy has prevented 1.8 million deaths between 1945 and 2015. It is ranked last in deaths per energy unit produced. This is because nuclear waste is stored somewhere, while gasses from oil or coal-burning plants just float around in the air. We just don’t know because catastrophic events are burned into our memory, while coal and oil kill silently. Next, nuclear energy reduces CO2 outputs. Since nothing burns inside a nuclear reactor, it does not produce any CO2 whatsoever. That’s of course a big factor since CO2 is the biggest player in global warming. Lastly, maybe there will be better reactors in the future, like the fusion reactor, which uses water to generate energy. There’s also the new thorium reactor. This reactor is not as radioactive (only for 100 years instead of 10.000), generates lots more energy, can’t be turned into nuclear weapons and thorium is more abundant than uranium. So, it may be nuclear energy is bad, but it might also be that it’s the energy of the future!
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