Nuclear Nation Revisited

Doing nothing would entail me sitting back and not responding to any comments. In fact I believe that knowledge and information are the best weapons against the ignorance that is slowly consuming our country. Haven’t you ever heard that people fear what they do not understand? What can the human population rely on to generate electricity if nuclear power is simply not an option? Well the top choices are coal, solar and fossil fuels. Unfortunately there are disadvantages to every means of generating electricity and what it really boils down to is what is most effective for right now, because as human beings we are naturally inclined to act on impulse rather than really sit and think out our actions.

Lets take a look at the disadvantages of nuclear power, and surprisingly cost does not rank high among them. Containment of the nuclear waste and the ability to harness nuclear weapons from it have been key concerns since 2007. When comparing nuclear power in price to that of coal in 19 countries, 11 reported nuclear power to be significantly cheaper than coal. If you want to argue about the costs of building either nuclear or coal based power plants it may be a different story, however electricity generated through nuclear power is said throughout to be less expensive than coal or virtually the same.

So why do we use nuclear power over coal? Simple. Coal leads to the excavation of mines. Mines require workers. Ever hear of the canary that would go in and test out the mines to see if they were safe? Well guess what, just because a canary flies back out it does not mean that the overall health of a miner is not in danger. In fact when one compares the number of deaths caused by nuclear radiation and the particulates released by coal when it is used to generate power the numbers speak for themselves. Since the Chernobyl incident in 1986 the death tolls between the two power generating substances are alarming, however we need power so which is worse? You decide. Using 600,000 people the World Health Organization estimates that about 4,000 people will die due to exposure to radiation at Chernobyl over the course of an entire lifetime. Just to be even clearer on the facts, the average life expectancy of a Russian male is 63.08 and female 74.87 making the average for a person 68.98. When comparing the conservative estimate towards coal we find the numbers to be much more alarming. Particulates from coal generation are responsible for 90,000 deaths throughout the United States since Chernobyl happened in 1986.

Don’t get me wrong I am not arguing that nuclear radiation is great, the problem is our society is far from simple and we rely on electricity to run as a world. Fossil fuels are hard to come by and are therefore expensive unless there is a direct source and solar power eventually pays for itself however how many people have $20-$30,000 to drop on panels to power their entire home?

If you ask me I would say that the government should help out on lowering the costs of solar power installation and allow people to be able to afford it. Think about it if people did not have to spend so much on power than perhaps we can put the money towards the economy and generate business. More people would buy solar because it is cheaper, therefore there would be a high demand for installation and this would generate jobs in the form of installers, repairmen, sales people, etc.