Nuclear Power Argument Essay

Scientists believe that unless we can cap the emission of greenhouse gases, global warming will accelerate. Coal energy currently produces 44% of world’s electricity, but nuclear power only supplies 12.3% of world’s electricity. Although coal energy supplies the majority of electricity, compared to nuclear power, coal energy emits a greater amount of CO2 that could cause global warming. Therefore, for these few years, the electricity produced by nuclear power has a noticeable increase. According to Nuclear Energy Institute, it states that 12.3 percent of world’s electricity is provided by nuclear power. This is a 5% increase since 2004. (Nuclear Energy Institute, 2015) After the recent Fukushima disaster in Japan, a lot of countries have scrutinized

Nuclear power, luckily, rarely produces CO2 because it uses Uranium. Nuclear power does emit Carbon Dioxide since there will be little CO2 when cooling the reactor down, but it is 50 times less than coal and 25 times less than natural gases. Actually, the emissions of Carbon Dioxide, which is close to none, are associated with the electricity that nuclear power plants generate. (Nuclear Information Administration, August 14, 2014) Thus, it is actually positive to emit Carbon Dioxide for nuclear power. Unlike coal energy and natural gas energy, which take advantage of fire to burn coal that creates CO2 and air pollutants, nuclear power emits CO2 only when heating water for the creation of steam, and CO2 is preserved for future uses. Scientists and scholars predict that emissions of greenhouse gases will be doubled in 2050, so nuclear power has a great advantage. For example, “This scenario would displace a significant amount of carbon-emitting fossil fuel generation. In 2002, carbon equivalent emission from human activity was about 6,500 million tonnes per year; these emissions will probably more than double by 2050.”(Future of Nuclear Power, 2003 Dates Unknown) Since nuclear power does not emit carbon dioxide, it might have a reduction of pollutants in our future, which might be worldwidely noticed in the future. It is proven that

The price of fuel is usually unstable, while the price of Uranium is relatively cheap and stable. Additionally, nuclear power plant could recycle the fuel used for generating and reuse it again! Apart from that, we could possibly extract Uranium infinitely, which creates independence and sustainability. Nuclear energy does not need to rely on fuel that changes price everyday, but uses an element that is ubiquitous and cheap. For example, Japan and France have actually found out a way to recycle fuel. Additionally, infinite amount of uranium dissolves in seawater although we cannot extract it cheaply now.(What is Nuclear Energy, 2014 Dates Unknown) It is possible that uranium becomes ubiquitous if we can extract it from sea water. Despite the reliance of Uranium, instead of using expensive and unstable fuel, Uranium is relatively cheap and sustainable. People might be complaining about that nuclear power needs great amount of uranium from Australia and Canada, but with the technology of extraction of seawater’s Uranium, which is being explored aggressively as that of nuclear fusion, Uranium might be free someday. Then, the costs of nuclear power will decrease noticeably, which attracts