Now I will inform you about the history of nuclear energy.

In the atomic era where a lot of research

was done by scientist 1950, the first commercial power station went online. Since then, the number
of nuclear power plants has been rapidly increasing until 1987. There were 407 reactors operational.
In the following year the number of nuclear power plants began staying still or at least did not
increase dramatically. There were two major disasters in the history of nuclear power. The first one
took place in Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986, where there was a nuclear meltdown in one reactor due to
a personal and political failure. The second incident happened in 2011 in Fukushima, Japan, where an
earthquake caused a tsunami which destroyed three nuclear reactors. 150000 people had to leave
their homes behind.

After this background info about this topic, I will point out the current political stance of nuclear
energy. It is a highly controversial topic, which gets clearer when we look at the numbers of nuclear
reactors in the last years. In 2018, there were 450 nuclear reactors operational, but in 2021 this
number decreased by 8 nuclear reactors. Also, there are only 33 countries in the world consuming
nuclear energy, whom of the United States uses the most of it with an amount of 800 GW, followed
by China and France with around 345 GW consumed per year. France is an exception in the field of
nuclear energy usage. Compared to its population its energy share is extraordinarily high with 70% of
its whole energy produced in nuclear power plants.

But why is it such a highly discussed topic and why does France use so much nuclear energy? Firstly,
the storage and disposal are a really important factor in these discussions. The radioactive material
must be isolated in water for 5 years to cool it down and decrease its radiation. After that, a fitting
landscape for this material is needed. It must be disposed 3000m deep underground, so it does not
interfere with our drinking water. It should not be populated, so people living near are not affected b
it. The risk for earthquakes must be minimal, so disasters are as unlikely as possible.

In the well-known climate change topic, the nuclear energy also plays a key role. Like Juri said, it does
not produce greenhouse gases and furthermore does not heat up the atmosphere. Many politicians
suggest, it could be used in a transitioning phase between fossil fuels and renewable energy, because
it is reliable and climate friendly. The direct transition between these does not work well, so it could
be an option for the future.

Like I pointed our before, the risk of disaster can end fatal, but as scientific progress is made, the
harvesting of nuclear energy will get a lot safer. An example for this is the next gen power plants,
which are a lot safer and more effective.

Overall, there is no clear political shift in nuclear energy and the opinions about it are really divided.