Opinion Editorial
The BOOMS and BANGS of Nuclear Energy
introduction
What would you do if President Obama made an announcement today that effective immediately we would abandon the use of all types of energy besides nuclear energy? My guess would be that you and the majority of the United States would be furious because you claim nuclear energy is “bad”. The question is why? What are your reasons to back up your stance? The majority of people that are against switching to nuclear energy probably do not have very many reasons to support their claim. Even if they do, they are probably not sound reasons. Are you one of them? If you are not, do not worry, I know there are good, sound reasons against nuclear energy also. However, if you are one of them, I am here to tell you that you wouldn’t be alone. My parents would be on your side as well. The problem is, if you asked them why, they wouldn’t have much to say. Generally speaking, United States citizens are somewhat uneducated about nuclear energy. They just know that they have been told that nuclear energy is “bad.” Where is your evidence to prove this? Is it just an irrational fear of everything nuclear? Throughout my years in high school and college, I have been somewhat educated on this subject. My educated claim is that nuclear energy is better than most of the alternatives, it’s not as bad as it’s been made out to be, and it will last us a lot longer than any other form of energy (excluding renewable sources). Start supporting nuclear energy today!
better than the alternatives
First of all, why is there even a need to change our energy sources? Well, because fossil fuels, such as oil, coal, natural gas, etcetera come with some drawbacks. They’re changing our climate. That’s a fact. Many scientists have contributed our use of fossil fuels to be a major cause of global warming. You cannot deny that global warming is occurring. To illustrate my point, just talk to your parents or someone older than you about their childhood. I’ve talked with my parents about it and they can remember several times when they had “snow days”, which meant school was cancelled due to large amounts of snow. They tell me all about the fact that the snow would be up to their knees, thighs, waist, or whatever else. Back then, it was a common thing that happened probably a couple times a year. Not only that, but they used to trick-or-treat on Halloween in the snow all the time. Now think back to your own childhood. If it’s anything like mine, it’s vastly different. I never had a “snow day” my entire childhood. It also seems like winter is starting later and later every year because I can only remember trick-or-treating on Halloween in the snow once in my life. There is something wrong with this drastic change. Our climate should never have changed this dramatically in this short of time period. The cause has to be global warming. Since our use of fossil fuels is a major cause of global warming, we need to figure out a new way to produce energy. The answer is nuclear energy.
it’s not as bad as it’s made out to be
Everyone’s attack on nuclear energy is always the same. It’s either that nuclear energy produces a lot of radioactive waste that will turn us all into green aliens with three eyes (forgive me of my exaggeration) or that it will explode like Chernobyl or the Japan nuclear power plants, and we will all blow up (once again, forgive me of my exaggeration). Well, I’m here to allay some of those fears. There have been many studies and researches conducted on nuclear energy waste. The results would probably shock most of you. If you compare the amount of nuclear waste to other energy sources, you will find that the nuclear waste is the smallest amount and it isn’t even a close race. The downfall, as you probably already know, is that the nuclear waste is radioactive, unlike the other waste. However, this isn’t as big of a problem as it seems. First of all, we can recycle the Uranium used in the nuclear power plants which we cannot do with other energy sources, this is one reason the waste is smaller. Second, the levels or concentration of radioactivity found in the waste is actually pretty minute and shouldn’t be a huge worry. Especially since we have companies specifically devoted to storing the nuclear waste, like the local Utah company, Energy Solutions. Moving on to the second line of attack, which was nuclear power plants exploding. When was the last time this happened in the United States? Never. Why? Simply put, we’re a smart and safe country. We have strict regulations on our nuclear power plants and we monitor them very closely. In fact, we have prevented many catastrophes by catching leaks early on and fixing the problem. Am I saying we should be completely irresponsible and not worry about the waste or the power plants at all? Of course not! We should absolutely continue to conduct studies and find better ways to store the waste and to safely use nuclear power plants. What I am saying, is that nuclear energy is not as dangerous as many think it is.
it will last a lot longer than any other forms of energy
Going back to the small amount of waste that was produced by nuclear energy, does that mean that the nuclear energy produced was also the smallest? Definitely not. We get an amazing amount of energy from just a little Uranium that it’s almost unbelievable. Not only that, but Uranium is such an abundant element, much more so than the fossil fuels, that it will take us probably close to eons for us to run out. Which isn’t quite as good as renewable sources, but renewable sources don’t put out nearly as much energy as nuclear energy does. The best part is that we currently only conduct nuclear fission in our nuclear power plants because we haven’t quite figured out how to conduct nuclear fusion effectively yet. However, once we do, frankly put, it will be incredible. Fusion is what goes on in the sun which means we would almost be able to use the energy of the sun. That means almost unlimited energy, which would be totally awesome! Who would not want that?!
conclusion
I hope that I have expanded your knowledge on nuclear energy and hopefully allayed some of your fears. There should no longer be any irrational fear of everything nuclear. We need to change our sources of energy now and start moving towards nuclear energy because fossil fuels are damaging our ecosystem and eventually they will run out. Although, the initial cost of using nuclear energy is high, once it is up and running it is the most cost effective energy source. It will also help us reduce our dependence on foreign fuel/oil and therefore boost the economy. The pros of nuclear energy drastically outweigh the cons. The great thing is that the pros will only continue to expand as we do further research and develop better ways to store waste, monitor power plants, and conduct nuclear fusion. While the cons will only shrink! Nuclear energy isn’t as bad as you thought, is it? Nor is it worse than the other alternatives! Plus it will definitely outlast fossil fuels! So join the cause and support nuclear energy!
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