Nuclear energy is the cleanest, greenest electricity

Nuclear energy

What is nuclear energy?  

Nuclear is one source of energy. Nuclear power is produced by processes of fission, fusion and reactivity. The nuclear power plants worldwide use the concept of fission process to generate electricity. Nowadays, nuclear technology and renewable energy gain serious attention from the people worldwide as a source of energy. Nuclear energy can be considered as a green energy.

What is green energy?

Green energy is the source of energy that is environment friendly and non-polluting.Examples of green energy are solar energy, wind power, wave power, hydro power and geothermal. Green energy sources are called as ''green'' because the usage of these energy sources produce lower carbon emissions or sometimes called greenhouse gases thus create less pollution. The terms of renewable energy and alternative energy are frequently used to represent green energy. The burning of coal and fossil fuel contributes to the majority emission of carbon dioxide in the environment. The carbon emission gives negative impact towards our beloved environment. The vast release of carbon is driving climate change, which is blamed for everything from forest fires and hurricanes in United State to melting North Pole ice sheets and flooded  lands.

Can nuclear be classified as green energy?There is some confusions regarding this matter. Some people, including George Monbiot (a writer & political activist) and James Lovelock (an independent researcher) state that nuclear power is a green energy. Meanwhile others, including Greenpeace (Non-governmental organization) disagree, claiming that the problems associated with radioactive waste and the risk of nuclear accidents such as the Chernobyl disaster and Three Mile Island accident pose an unacceptable risk to the environment and to humanity. There is no such energy source that gives totally no effect towards the environment. All energy sources require energy and give impact towards our beloved environment. Basically nuclear energy can be classified as green energy because the usage of this energy will reduce reliance on fossil fuel and coal. As you all know, fossil fuel and coal are the main contributors of carbon dioxide release in the enviroment. Some explanations below support that nuclear energy is a green energy. 

George Monbiot

James Lovelock

 As for example, France is one of the successful nuclear power users. Over 75% of French electricity comes from nuclear power plants. French electricity costs are among the lowest in Europe. A major factor in the low cost of electricity in France is the use of a single reactor design, which allows for economies of scale. French CO₂ emissions are among the lowest in the developed world, with 10 tons of CO₂ equivalents per person per year. Nuclear power gives France the cleanest air of any industrialized country in the world.

The carbon emissions by various energy sources by Vattenfall (Swedish utility company)

 

The graph above is produced in 1999 by Vatenfall (Swedish utility) to study about the emissions of carbon dioxide by various energy sources such as coal, gas thermal, solar PV, nuclear and others used in electricity generation. The graph above demonstrates about the amount of carbon dioxide (g) released per kWh of electricity generation. From the graph, nuclear power produces approximately 3.3 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour of electricity as compared to 400 g/kWh for natural gas and 700 g/kWh for coal. The usage of nuclear in electricity generation yields the lowest amount of carbon dioxide among the energy sources used. We can conclude that the usage of nuclear in electricity generation can reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide and also decrease the green house effect. 

Besides the burning of fossil fuel and coal causes harms or negative impacts towards the environment and humanity. For your information, a coal power plant releases 100 times as much radiation as a nuclear power plant of the same wattage. This shows that coal usage produces  more harms than nuclear usage. In addition, fossil fuel waste contributes to global warming, which leads to increased deaths from hurricanes, flooding, and other weather events. Claims exist that the problems of nuclear waste do not come anywhere close to approaching the problems of fossil fuel waste. The World Nuclear Association provides a comparison of deaths due to accidents among different forms of energy production. In their comparison, nuclear energy causes the least casualty among the other energy sources used like hydropower, coal and natural gas. This shows that nuclear energy is safe to be used to generate electricity.