The Good Side of Nuclear Power

Nuclear power costs slightly less than coal because like coal there are large amounts of uranium all over the world and it is so economical that 1 kg of uranium can produce 80 trillion joules (22.2 M watts) of energy, this same amount can be produced by 3000 tonnes of coal. As can be seen in diagram 1 nuclear energy cost roughly 2.5US cents per kilowatt-hour this means that it only costs an electricity user in American 2.5US cents for every kilowatt of nuclear Diagram 1

energy they use per hour.

This is a very cheap alternative in comparison to oil which is almost 18US cents per kilowatt-hour. Uranium may currently cost $99US a kilo in comparison to coal which costs only $107US a tonne but the difference is that the amount of energy produced by 1 kilogram of uranium ($99US) is equal to 3000 tonnes of coal ($321,000US) and with the added advantage that because it uses steam that is continuously recycled it produces no harmful smoke or carbon dioxide, this then means that it does not contribute to the greenhouse effect in any way at all. Nuclear energy is always slandered for its production of harmful radioactive waste but the waste that is produced is very small and unless it is improperly sealed it proposes no direct threat to humans. Nuclear power is a very safe alternative for energy because the only time it becomes highly radiated when it is its waste form. Nuclear power plants cost large amounts of money to build; this is because nuclear power plants have to be fitted with the best safety equipment because what happened with Chernobyl was caused by a failure in the reactor but it is very simple to stop these failures as long as the energy companies spend the right amount of money on their safety equipment. An average 500 M watt nuclear power station costs roughly $1,000,000,000 US – $3,500,000,000 US the cost depends on which country the power plant is built and also the area in which they are built.

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By Blake Anderson