Nuclear Power For the Win!

Nuclear Power FTW!!


In a world of limited resources, it is paramount for the United States to constantly engineer new methods for maintaining a constant energy source, lest we risk our quality of life. The condition of our energy policies is directly related to vital issues such as national security, economic stability, and a higher standard of living. And though there are several sources that have been suggested as being the ideal (hydrogen power, anyone?), our condition is such that, at the moment, we lack the technology to take advantages of these sources. A stopgap needs to be implemented while we research that elusive ideal, a stopgap that will remove our worries by centuries while maintaining our standards of living. To that end, a nuclear energy-centric plan is the one I am in full support of.
Statistics taken from the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) website shows several consistent truths concerning nuclear energy: the fuel (uranium) is inexpensive, the waste is compact and can be recycled via breeder reactors, and finally, to satisfy the environmental enthusiast, I might add that there are absolutely no greenhouse or acid rain effects to worry about. A study conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy and Energy Information Administration reports a direct correlation between the increase of dependence on nuclear power and a decrease in carbon dioxide emissions.
Of course, there are plenty other aspects of nuclear energy that they might be concerned with, such as the volatile nature of the waste. It is highly radioactive, meaning it would take years to decay in the open environment. But this is assuming that the maintainers of the power plant would be content to let it sit out in the open. Sending the excess waste through a breeder reactor would solve this problem quite nicely; not only by getting rid of the hated environmental anti-Christ that would make even Al Gore wet his pants, but by recycling the small amount of waste into energy. Indeed it is small; according to the NEI, the entire industry has produced about 58,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel over the past four years. Collectively, this would cover a football field about seven yards deep; hardly a worrisome size of waste.
Then there is the most amusing argument against nuclear energy: “But what about proliferation?! Because, you know, terrorists might find the nuclear waste and create of bomb out of it in their backyard!” Please. It isn’t hard to see why this argument is so flawed that it isn’t so much an argument as a joke – the people perpetuating this point are forgetting that a breeder reactor is required in order to make anything truly volatile out of a granule of nuclear waste. If a terrorist is technologically inclined enough to steal radioactive uranium from us and convert it into a bomb, then he wouldn’t. He would simply create his own with the aforementioned, metaphorical reactor he already owns.
Though the immediate use of nuclear energy has been restricted to powering homes, etc., if enough nuclear reactors were established, it could lead to the implementation of a fuel cell economy. Fuel cell based cars, combined with nuclear powered homes, would result in energy independence for the United States, given that the uranium we use only comes from our homeland.
I can only conclude that nuclear power promotes safety in every possible way; by providing a route towards energy independence, by being environmentally safe, and by being economically healthy. Indeed, it is the stopgap we have been searching for until we should stumble upon the technology that will give us access to an unending, ideal, and collectively perfect resource.