People may argue that 25% of the world’s energy is produced through nuclear power, but what they do not understand is all the problems it brings:
1 – Extremely Expensive To Install:
If you think it costs around $6 – 12 billion just to build one reactor, a lot of wasted tax dollars have been used to subsidize these big utility companies. Why not invest that money in other renewable energy such as wind farms or solar power?
2 – Does not aid global warming:
Once seen as the solution to global climate change, nuclear power is far from it. Everywhere along the nuclear chain – from the mining of uranium to its transportation to the construction of the power plant – greenhouse gases are emitted.
Furthermore, their construction takes too long to solve global warming. In fact, investing in nuclear power deprives other efforts – such as energy efficiency, conservation and renewable energy – of further funding and development.
3 – What happens to all that radioactive waste?
From mining to milling, processing to enrichment, fuel fabrication to fuel irradiation in reactors, large amounts of harmful, long-lasting radioactive waste is produced. In addition to 20-30 tons of high-level radioactive waste per reactor per year, this includes so-called “low” level radioactive waste.
4 – A damaged reactor could lead to a catastrophe:
All nuclear plants are vulnerable to accidents or attacks. Nevertheless, if an accident did occur, the current evacuation plans are completely unrealistic. In addition, the Price-Anderson Act ensures the utility’s liability of an accident is limited to only $10.8 billion. This is absurd, considering a serious reactor accident could cause as much as $600 billion of damage. Once again, the balance would likely have to be paid by us, the taxpayers.
5 – Has lead to increased cancer cases:
Though authorities deem the levels of radiation emitted to be “safe”, children and other vulnerable individuals are not taken into account when reaching this conclusion. This is very irresponsible, and could lead to more cancer cases as the number of reactors increases.
We have also been misled about how safe it really is to “dispose” of all this radioactive waste. There is no scientific proof to show where the safest place to dump the waste is. And more nuclear plants would make the problem worse. There are only so many “safe” storage facilities. Any additional waste would have to be either burned or dumped in landfills – leading to air and water pollution.
6 – Nuclear technology sets the stage for atomic weapons:
If you look back at Israel’s bombing of Syria’s suspected nuclear site in 2007, and America worried about Iran’s nuclear program, nuclear development brings about the threat of a nuclear attack. Just imagine how tensions would rise as more countries increase their nuclear deployment. Not to mention the fact that the more reactors there are, the easier it is for terrorists to get their hands on nuclear materials.
7 – There are cleaner alternatives:
What bothers us most is we already have better, cleaner, safer and cheaper alternatives available and ready to implement. Perhaps with the recent election of our new US government, nuclear energy will be put to rest and renewable energy will be harnessed on a larger scale.
But while we wait, it is possible to start harnessing renewable energy at home. What’s more is, it does not cost very much and is rather simple to implement. Various solar and wind power guides have already become available, which you can see in our reviews section.
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