Is Our Future in Nuclear Power

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Is Our Future In Nuclear Power?
Chris Jones
Dependence of Man on the Environment
Instructor Lisa Johnson
October 23, 2010

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As one person out of an estimated 6.5 billion that inhabit this planet, I am concerned about our energy needs for our near future.   I chose to discuss the importance of nuclear energy because the alternatives that we are using now are becoming limited and we are realizing more and more of the impacts to our planet and our health, not to mention the economics of continuing to use them.   We are approaching quickly the realization of phasing our energy needs in a new direction, many alternatives have been introduced but none as productive as nuclear.  
On one side of the nuclear energy issue are the people that want to get away from the use of fossil fuels. Converting our power to nuclear can be beneficial to our environment eliminating emissions by doing so.   The EPA has published emission levels of our current power sources and has shown that nuclear power gives off no harmful pollutants compared to ones ran on coal, gas and oil (U.S. Energy).
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identifies the following average emission levels                         IIn the production of 1 MWh of electricity Pounds of Emissions per MWh |
  | Coal | Oil | Natural Gas | Nuclear |
  Carbon Dioxide | 2249 | 1672 | 1135 | 0 |
  Sulfur Dioxide | 13 | 12 | 0.1 | 0 |
  Nitrogen Oxides | 6 | 4 | 1.7 | 0 |
   Source: www.epa.gov/clean energy/impacts |

As you can see by the chart the benefits to the environment are unparalleled when it comes to emissions.   Nuclear energy would have a tremendous impact as far as reducing these harmful emissions.   I can only hope that we can become more aware of the benefits to nuclear power.
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Nuclear waste unlike the burning of coal, oil, and gas (to generate energy) cannot be...