The Importance Of Nuclear Energy

“We are serious about replacing fossil fuels, we are going to need nuclear power, so the choice is stark: We can keep on merely talking about a carbon-free world, or we can go ahead and create one, ” stated Peter Thiel , a partner in Founders Fund, in a column on nuclear power in the New York Times, urging the world to take immediate action to limit climate change. It was estimated that the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels reached a record high of 36. 1 billion metric tons in 2013, that was 706 metric tons more than in 2012. (Zolfagharifard, 2015) Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas emission that contributes to the global climate change, which has become a growing concern in the past few

The nuclear energy is produced in the nuclear reaction through the nuclear fission, while the fossil fuels was produced by chemical reaction and it is estimated that a fission reaction is roughly a million times more energetic than a chemical reaction. Nuclear energy requires very little quantity of fuel to produce large quantities of energy. When one gram of uranium-235 undergoes nuclear fission in reactor, the energy it produces is equal to the burning of three tonnes of coal or two tonnes of oil. Moreover, nuclear energy produces millions of times more powerful, for example, 1 kg of coal could keep a light bulb lit for four days, while same amount of nuclear fuels could lit the same bulb up for 685 years. (Nuclear Industry Association, N/A) Additionally, The United Nation (2015) estimated that by the year of 2030, the world population will reach 8.5 billion, and by the year of 2015, it will reach over 11 billion. The growth of the global demand for energy is projected to skyrocket over the coming decades, as a consequence, with its high level of efficiency , nuclear energy is the only energy source that is capable of producing powerful energy as well as satisfying the global

In fact, the reactor in the Chernobyl accident was one of those Soviet designed and built reactors that have always been a safety concern for years , the accident was the result of a flawed design that was operated insufficient trained personnel, so basically it had very little relevance to the rest of the nuclear reactors and to the western ones or the ones that might be built today. (World Nuclear Association, 2015) According to report of United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effect of Atomic Radiation on Chernobyl accident, apart from the increased thyroid cancers, “there is no evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure two decades after the accident.” (UNSCEAR, 2008) Additionally, nuclear power was actually saving more lives than it killed. NASA had found that between 1971 to 2009, nuclear power had prevented 1.8 million air pollution-related deaths. (Hansen, 2013) On the other hand, people keep burning fossil fuels, creating countless cases of cancer or lung diseases , and accidents that happen in coal mines can not be avoided. (Kurzgesagt, 2015) The safety level of nuclear power plants is high and increasing, the consequences of accidents are relatively low compared with risks resulting in burning of the fossil fuels. To sum up, the benefits of the nuclear