Environmental Issues & Nuclear Energy

As concerns over greenhouse gas emissions, global warming and climate change heat up, nuclear energy is again being looked at as an alternative to fossil fuels. However, nuclear power plants pose their own threats to the environment.

History

The United States began developing nuclear power plants in 1954. They grew increasingly popular in the 1960s and 1970s as a way to solve the energy crisis and gain independence from fossil fuels, especially imported oil. Antinuclear activists and accidents at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Chernobyl in the Soviet Union turned public opinion against nuclear power in the late 1980s.

Features

Nuclear power is an established technology with several advantages. It generates power in areas with limited natural resources and, unlike coal, doesn't produce carbon dioxide. Nuclear fuel is energy dense and compact. Existing stores of uranium-235 are a source of energy that the U.S. can tap into at any time.

Considerations

Nuclear power's major disadvantage is that it generates large amounts of radioactive waste that must be stored for thousands of years. The current process for enriching uranium-235 can also be used for nuclear weapons. The current supply of uranium-235 will run out before the end of the 21st century. Nuclear power plants take five years to build and are insured by the government at enormous cost to the taxpayer.

References

• "Gale Encyclopedia of US Economic History"; Nuclear Energy (Issue); 2000
• Grist: A Choice of Primary Energies