Against Nuclear Energy

Nuclear energy has no place in our future.

Many dangers come with nuclear energy, and it us certainly not the most efficient way to create energy. Renewable energy sources are cleaner, more reliable, and come with less risks. Nuclear technology came into our world with a bang. I make that statement literally. Just one year after the world’s first test explosion in 1944, two large cities were destroyed by only two nuclear bombs. After this event, nuclear reactor technology grew(creating electricity), but this was always closely tied with nuclear weapons.

The nuclear non-proliferation treaty was made in order to spread nuclear reactor technology, without spreading nuclear weapons. This has had little to no success. In a matter of forty years, five countries have have developedweapons with the help of nuclear reactor technology. It is very difficult to tell if a plant is a nuclear weapons program, or if it is just making electricity. Nuclear fuel is radioactive, and contains very dangerous chemicals.

Plutonium is one of the poisonous chemicals in nuclear fuel. This take thousands of years to detoxify. There is also a process used to extract this chemical from the fuel. This can be used to make bombs, or electricity. Most of it is not used for electricity, because we do not have the right technology. It is very difficult to dispose of nuclear waste.

After dumping into the ocean was banned, we began to pump mountains full of the waste. Yucca mountain is the largest waste mountain, but it is only one of many. In just sixty years of nuclear power, there have been seven major accidents with reactors. Three of these accidents were mostly contained, but four realised large amounts of radioactivity. In 1957, 1987, and 2011, areas of Ukraine, Russia, and Japan have been deemed unfit for human life. The number of deaths probably lies in the thousands.

Each of these disasters happened with reactors of very different types, many years apart, in very different countries. The question we must ask ourselves is, is ten percent of our energy supply worth a nuclear meltdown every thirty years? The risks do outweigh the benefits, so we need to drop this technology for good.