Jegers Weibert 1

Monica Jegers Weibert

Mr. Stoner

English 12

31 October 21

Nuclear Power and Energy

The world has a problem; this problem is climate change. Moving to Nuclear energy and

Power should be the next step the world takes. Nuclear energy is also more efficient and is better

for the environment than using coal or reusable energy. Nuclear energy beats out most other

energy sources in many ways. Nuclear power should replace other kinds of energy because its

efficiency, low cost, and environmental benefits can combat the effects of climate change.

Nuclear power is better for the environment compared to fossil fuels. Nuclear energy

emits almost an equal amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) as other renewable energy sources and air

pollutants that create smog. Fossil fuels create a lot more of these emissions that are harmful for

the environment. Carbon dioxide is what we call a greenhouse gas. Fossil fuels create a lot of

these said greenhouse gasses and pollute our air. The way that both the fossil-fuel and nuclear

energy plants work is by using heat to convert water into steam that turns a turbine to create

electricity. Though both nuclear and fossil fuel plants use the system of heat to create steam,

fossil fuel plants also burn the fossil fuels which releases CO2 into the air with the steam. On the

other hand, nuclear power plants create heat via nuclear fission which releases very little to no

CO2. “According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 90 percent of the carbon

emissions from electricity generation in the United States comes from coal-fired power plants.
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They emit pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, toxic metals, arsenic, cadmium and mercury (Sen) .”

One word you never want to see when something is being put into the air that people breathe is

toxic. The definition of toxic is poisonous. When they are burning coal in power plants, they are

putting poisonous metals into our atmosphere. As stated before 90% of the carbon emission is

from the coal-fired power plants, that is only 17.8% of the energy that the U.S. uses. when you

consider that the other 82.2% of the power plants only emit 10% of the 100% of CO2 emission, it

shows how bad these plants are for our environment. there has been a lot of talk about the CO2

emissions being bad. There is a reason for it being bad.

The biggest factor in climate change is the CO2 emissions entering the atmosphere. With

CO2 being the largest contributor to climate change, it would only seem fitting that the human

race, the most intelligent and capable animal on the earth, would want to find a way to not have

as much of it being put into the air. We already have some methods such as renewable energies,

but when the plants are not in service they rely on power from fossil fuels to keep them running.

Solar panels that run during the night while the sun is not out rely on the power of fossil fuels;

they are not completely CO2 emission free. There is another alternative which is nuclear power;

it produces little to no CO2 into the air which would bring the amount of greenhouse gasses down

to zero. According to the IAEA,( international atomic energy association)

Electricity generation, manufacturing and road transportation account for around 75% of

direct CO2 emissions, while services, agriculture and the residential sector together

contribute only around 10%. The CO2 emissions are mainly from the production of

energy which is why nuclear power can very much help with the case of the CO2

emissions. (IAEA)
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The reason the CO2 gasses in our atmosphere are bad is because when heat is emitted off

of the earth and into the atmosphere it is supposed to go out into space, but the greenhouse

gasses in the atmosphere absorb it and send some of it back down at the earth, heating up the the

atmosphere and thereby creating global warming. The more greenhouse gasses we have in the

air, the worse climate change will get. Nuclear power can help so much, yet people still shy away

from the use of it.

One reason why people are pulling away from using nuclear energy is because it’s “not

safe”,but they are very safe. “Nuclear reactors and power plants are actually made to be as safe

as possible. It almost requires deliberate intentions to mess one up, as there are redundancies on

top of redundancies to prevent anything going wrong (O’Donnel).” Even though in the past,

places such as Chernobyl and Fukushima had nuclear meltdowns and issues, we have learned

from that and created better and safer versions that are the next generation nuclear reactors. They

have many cooling systems and have a bunch of safety procedures and ways to keep them safe.

So there are very few ways that these nuclear plants could break down. They are also surrounded

by tons of concrete to prevent radiation from escaping the plant. As stated it would take someone

to deliberately try and mess it up.

Nuclear energy is better than other energies that put a lot of CO2 in the atmosphere. The

coal fueled power plants are putting poisonous metals into our air and contributing 90% of the

CO2 produced by the United States. The biggest factor in climate change is the emission of CO2

in our air and climate change is not something to take lightly. Nuclear power plants are also

actually being created to be safer; there are a lot of safety precautions, to the point where

someone would have to try to even damage the facilities or surrounding areas. For all of these
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reasons, nuclear power should replace other kinds of energy because of its efficiency and

environmental benefits that can combat the effects of climate change.

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Works Cited

INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, Climate Change and Nuclear Power 2018, ,

IAEA, Vienna (2018).

“Nuclear Explained.” Factors Affecting Gasoline Prices - Energy Explained, Your Guide To

Understanding Energy - Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy

, 2018, www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.php?page=nuclear_home.

O'Donnel, Josy. “Pros and Cons of Nuclear Energy and Its Effect To The Environment.”

Conservation Institute, 19 Oct. 2018,

www.conservationinstitute.org/pros-and-cons-of-nuclear-energy/.

Sen, Debashree. “Nuclear Energy Vs. Fossil Fuel.” Sciencing.com, Sciencing, 10 Jan. 2019,

sciencing.com/about-6134607-nuclear-energy-vs--fossil-fuel.html.

Touran, N. “History of Nuclear Energy.” Whatisnuclear.com Icon,

whatisnuclear.com/history.html.