Student Post: Nuclear Energy, Fear, and Climate Change

One of the most pressing questions of our time, if the predictions about the effects of climate change are to be believed, is what we will do to reduce our Carbon Dioxide emissions. While there are many sources of CO2 in our modern world, including cars, planes, and livestock, one of our largest, most complicated sources is still electricity generation. There are Pickens plans, bridge fuels, renewables, etc. which are each targeted at lowering CO2, and therefore mitigating the consequences of climate change. Each requires a significant expansion of an energy source which is not being used in large quantities currently in the United States. For example, wind energy only accounts for about 3% of total U.S. electricity generation. Natural gas currently accounts for about 25% of our total electricity generation, but it would have to be scaled up as a bridge fuel, only to be replaced by a more permanent source.

There is only one source that currently produces a significant portion of our electricity supply, and can also be the energy of the future: nuclear energy. According to the Department of Energy, nuclear power produces about 1/5 of the electricity we use in the United States. It takes 104 nuclear reactors to produces that 20% of our energy supply. For comparison, to produce about 45% of our electricity, it takes well over 1000 coal fired generators.

So what is holding our nuclear energy industry up? Stated simply, it is fear. People fear the “big one,” the massive nuclear incident that could kill or injures thousands of people at once. Despite the fact that more people died in the Deep Water Horizon incident than in the entire history of the U.S. Nuclear Industry, nuclear power still inspires visions of people mutated and deformed beyond recognition. People remember the devastation the nuclear weapons wrought at Hiroshima and Nagasawki. They remember Chernobyl, and it scares them to think what can happen. In other words, the nuclear industry is scarier than climate change.

Unfortunately, this perception isn’t going to change any time soon. The Fukushima disaster in Japan has only added more ammunition to the war chest of those that oppose the nuclear industry. Thus, the United States is left with a dilemma. Either the country can pursue a type of energy that is already established but is feard, or it can gamble on production methods that are not feared but may or may not be able to sustain our energy needs.

Sources:
http://www.nei.org/resourcesandstats/nuclear_statistics/usnuclearpowerplants/

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Existing_U.S._Coal_Plants

http://205.254.135.7/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=electricity_in_the_united_states