Is Nuclear Energy The Answer To Fossil Fuels?
2:11 AM // 0 comments // sb blogger // Category: fossil fuels , Nuclear Energy , Weapons //By Roger Vanderlely
Nuclear energy is held up as the obvious successor to fossil fuels as a solution for producing base load mainstream electricity. But is nuclear a viable long term solution or just another quick fix?
There is no doubt that fossil fuels have significant problems associated with their use. Peak Oil production will be the first to hit home. With an ever growing demand for oil production will eventually be unable to keep up and may have already passed into decline. More serious than this is the issue of pollution and the possibility of serious and practically irreversible climate change resulting from pumping endless amounts of Carbon Dioxide and other products into the atmosphere.
So given these issues how does Nuclear energy hold up as a long term solution to energy production? Nuclear has a bad name due to unfortunate incidents including Three Mile Island and Chernobyl where reactor problems caused major long term human and environmental suffering. Despite this, casualties associated with electricity production in the Nuclear industry are far fewer per unit of energy than in the coal and oil industries.
Storing the waste products from Nuclear reactors was a significant issue in the past. However, now the waste can be stored in solid form meaning there is almost no chance of contamination outside the storage area.
Fuel enrichment is a fact of using Nuclear energy, as the whole process would be far too wasteful without it. It is unfortunate that weapon-grade Plutonium-239 is a byproduct of this process. Nuclear weapons, while devastating as shown by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War 2, are essentially a separate issue and the fact that they are still produced is more of a sad reflection on global politics than a condemnation of Nuclear energy.
The reality for us though is that nuclear power relies upon supplies of Uranium and Plutonium that are themselves limited. While these resources may have only begun to be exploited, it is certain that if our current level of increase of energy consumption continues then Nuclear fuel will also face the prospect of its own peak production level.
It cannot be a responsible decision to replace fossil fuels with another energy source that is also doomed to run out in the foreseeable future. While those proponents of Nuclear power proclaim it as the salvation of our current situation they are not looking far enough into the future.
We need to be considering future generations when we make decisions regarding energy security. Do we want to hand our children a world swimming in fossil fuel pollution and nuclear waste, or a world that has a clean, secure power supply that has very limited environmental impacts? For solar and wind energy are proven technologies that can be implemented today to make that a reality.
Governments need to cease making excuses about why renewable energy can't be used and start implementing massive scale clean energy power stations to replace all other sources for base load electricity production. - 39468
There is no doubt that fossil fuels have significant problems associated with their use. Peak Oil production will be the first to hit home. With an ever growing demand for oil production will eventually be unable to keep up and may have already passed into decline. More serious than this is the issue of pollution and the possibility of serious and practically irreversible climate change resulting from pumping endless amounts of Carbon Dioxide and other products into the atmosphere.
So given these issues how does Nuclear energy hold up as a long term solution to energy production? Nuclear has a bad name due to unfortunate incidents including Three Mile Island and Chernobyl where reactor problems caused major long term human and environmental suffering. Despite this, casualties associated with electricity production in the Nuclear industry are far fewer per unit of energy than in the coal and oil industries.
Storing the waste products from Nuclear reactors was a significant issue in the past. However, now the waste can be stored in solid form meaning there is almost no chance of contamination outside the storage area.
Fuel enrichment is a fact of using Nuclear energy, as the whole process would be far too wasteful without it. It is unfortunate that weapon-grade Plutonium-239 is a byproduct of this process. Nuclear weapons, while devastating as shown by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War 2, are essentially a separate issue and the fact that they are still produced is more of a sad reflection on global politics than a condemnation of Nuclear energy.
The reality for us though is that nuclear power relies upon supplies of Uranium and Plutonium that are themselves limited. While these resources may have only begun to be exploited, it is certain that if our current level of increase of energy consumption continues then Nuclear fuel will also face the prospect of its own peak production level.
It cannot be a responsible decision to replace fossil fuels with another energy source that is also doomed to run out in the foreseeable future. While those proponents of Nuclear power proclaim it as the salvation of our current situation they are not looking far enough into the future.
We need to be considering future generations when we make decisions regarding energy security. Do we want to hand our children a world swimming in fossil fuel pollution and nuclear waste, or a world that has a clean, secure power supply that has very limited environmental impacts? For solar and wind energy are proven technologies that can be implemented today to make that a reality.
Governments need to cease making excuses about why renewable energy can't be used and start implementing massive scale clean energy power stations to replace all other sources for base load electricity production. - 39468
About the Author:
To find out more about Nuclear energy and issues associated with coal and oil use, visit the Fossil Fuels section of Roger Vanderlely's website. There you can also find information about possible energy developments such as the Bakken Oil Field.
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