Nuclear Power
Nuclear Energy
Many people for various reasons have opposed nuclear energy. Some people are against nuclear energy because they believe it is unsafe. Others think that nuclear power is environmentally unfriendly. It has even been said that nuclear energy is too expensive. In reality all these things are wrong. A very beneficial source of energy in many ways, nuclear energy generates no greenhouse gases or air pollutants while producing electricity. Nuclear power is a reliable source of energy and is not affected by weather, climate changes, or the friendliness of other countries. As for safety issues, plants are run by highly trained operators and incase of an accident have containments to handle spent fuel and to keep anything from being released into the air. Nuclear energy is more cost effective than coal or natural gas and can reduce the United States’ dependence on foreign fuel.
With an increasingly larger focus on the environment, global warming, and the Clean Air Act, nuclear energy is becoming a big factor in producing clean energy. The Clean Air Act is a national campaign to maintain healthy air quality by controlling air pollution in the United States (The Clean Air Act).
One main focus of the Clean Air Act is placing limits on the emission of nitrogen oxides and other greenhouse gases. U.S. nuclear power plants reduced pollutants controlled under the Clean Air Act by 31.6 million tons and 61.7 million tons between 1973 and 1999 (Nuclear Facts).
Most power plants burn fuel to produce electricity, but nuclear power plants do not. Instead, nuclear plants use the heat given off during fission as fuel. Fission is the releasing of a great amount of energy as heat and radiation by splitting a uranium atom and takes place inside the reactor of a nuclear power plant. Since nuclear power plants do not burn fossil fuels like other power plants they produce no air pollution or carbon dioxide (NUCLEAR ENERGY (URANIUM) ENERGY FROM...
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