Nuclear Power- Foe
What you can't see can kill you
Nuclear Energy Is Extremely Expensive
In an essay written by Romm from opposing viewpoints after a person named Moore comments:
“That's not including the capital costs, but the cost of production of electricity from nuclear is very low, and competitive with dirty coal. Gas costs three times as much as nuclear, at least. Wind costs five times as much, and solar costs 10 times as much.”
Romm states:
"And how can one possibly ignore the capital costs of arguably the most capital-intensive form of energy? Moore's statement is like saying "My house is incredibly cheap to live in, if I don't include the mortgage."
Nuclear power uses uranium. Uranium is highly expensive, estimating $100 per pound and constantly rising. Uranium must also be monitored at all times or else it can be highly destructive.
Since 2007, the price of the materials and equipment that are needed for nuclear power have gone up 185%!
Florida was recently thinking about opening a nuclear power plant, but just making it would cost a whopping 14 billion dollars!
Nuclear Power is Dangerous and Destructive
"Nuclear power is never "safe." Splitting atoms to produce heat, boil water, and generate electricity is an inherently dangerous activity. Splitting atoms can be made less dangerous, but it can never be "safe.""
Fukushima and Chernobyl are examples that nuclear power can never be 100% safe. In Fukushima, they had every type of precaution imaginable, but the worst case scenario still proceeded. Radiation still escaped and was released into the air. On another occasion, in Chernobyl there was a nuclear accident that caused consequences and suffering for many generations to come. This was caused by a flaw in the reactor design. The death and pain of many prove that one tiny mistake with nuclear power can cause a detrimental outcome.
Chernobyl and Fukushima are only the most known nuclear accidents. There have been many other disasters that we just don't hear about on the news. As said by Dennis Riches:
"There have been many disasters which have had devastating impacts on vulnerable populations, yet most of them have received less international recognition and sympathy than Fukushima."
Left Items
Radiation
Aftermath for Animals
Radiation spreads!
Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster
Fish being taken from a Chernobyl pond
A Sign Prohibiting Entering
Nuclear Energy is Not Renewable or Manageable
Nuclear power is also extremely hard to manage. There have been no successful long term managing plans for this energy source, and it must be stored for hundreds of thousands of years. Some have had the idea of reprocessing waste fuel. However this idea requires lots of construction and money.
Canada has invested lots of time and money into their nuclear power plants, but the energy is estimated to only last about 40 years, because there are limited supplies.
Alternatives to Nuclear Power
One of these alternatives is solar power. There are many benefits to solar power including:
- Solar power produces no smog, acid rain, or any other type of pollution
- In a solar power system, no carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, unlike coal and radiation
The next alternative is wind power. Alternative.org says, "Wind power is one of the most promising new energy sources."
The rewards from windpower include:
- It is very economically beneficial. The cost of wind power has already dropped 15 percent between the 1990s and 2000s
- The wind energy capacity has enough energy to power 5 cities the size of Miami!
- As more facilities are built, wind energy becomes cheaper