The Advantages of Nuclear Energy

By Wendy Pan

In a world where the threat of global warming is looming over the future of our planet, it is becoming more and more important to look into renewable, alternative forms of energy. With energy use growing at a rate of 3% per year, soon it will be inevitable to explore our options. Though it has been under much scrutiny in the past, the advantages of nuclear energy make it one form of powering our planet that should strongly be considered. By reducing emissions, the production of nuclear energy would in turn reduce the effects of global warming. In comparison with gas and coal fired power plants, nuclear energy plants create less than 1/100th of the CO2 created by the traditional power plants.

There are 2 processes in producing nuclear energy- fission and fusion. Fission, which is the splitting of nuclei, creates more than 10 million times the energy that is created in the burning of fossil fuels. Fusion, which is the process of joining nuclei, happens naturally in stars and the sun, and though the process has been recreated by man, it has not yet been safely controlled. When the ability to safely harness the energy from the fusion process has been developed, the amounts of usable nuclear energy will dramatically increase.

Nuclear energy can be renewable depending on the type of reactor that is being used. Currently, there are 442 reactors operating in the world, 130 of which are in the United States. Another 12 are being built in foreign countries. With the current technology, only 1% of the energy available in uranium is able to be captured by thermal reactors. This energy makes up between 11% and 18% of the total energy available in the world. Developing technologies that would allow us to capture more of this available energy, is at least 15 years away, but with incentives, these advances could be a realistic part of our future. The potential is not the only part of the advantages of nuclear energy.

Uranium, the source of nuclear energy, is available in large quantities in Australia. The uranium is reasonably cheap to mine, and easy to transport to reactors around the globe, making nuclear energy relatively inexpensive to produce when compared to conventional methods of energy production. The average finished cost of nuclear energy is between 3 and 5 cents per kilowatt, and the cost has dropped over the last 26 years, while the cost of other forms of energy has risen steadily over the same period of time.

When considering the advantages of nuclear energy, it is also important to keep in mind the challenges that the process also comes with. Radiation accidents are at the top of the list. Since the 1950's, 17 accidents have been reported throughout the world, with only a few causing serious illness and death. While health and public safety are of utmost concern, we must consider the relatively low accident rates, and how further advances in technology could help prevent other accidents from occurring.

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Дата добавления: 2015-11-14