In my introductory column, I said that I’m writing this series because I owe you. You, the taxpayers, have funded my education, training and career. But there is a second reason – people need to understand why we should be using a lot more nuclear electricity.
And here are the reasons
Nuclear energy is released in a nuclear reaction, not a chemical one. Nothing is burned, so there are no toxic or greenhouse gas emissions. That’s why submarines use it.
Nuclear reactors run flat-out, 24/7 except that they need to be refueled every – but only every 18 or 24 months. They do not depend on the weather.
Use of nuclear energy is another step in the natural evolution from low-density fuels (wood, dung, etc.) to better fuels (coal, oil, & gas) to zero-emission fuel (uranium). A 1,000 megawatt coal plant requires a 100-car trainload of coal every single day. (Naperville’s average electrical load is about 150 megawatts.) The equivalent reactor needs just a single railcar load of fuel every two years.
The tiny amount of uranium fuel needed means there is a million times less waste than combustion fuels – small enough to contain and manage.
Nuclear is mature. We have been using nuclear for over 60 years, and on submarines for 70 years. We are now developing new, improved reactors, based on these decades of experience.
Fuel supplies are plentiful. Uranium is available in a wide range of friendly countries, including in North America.
Nuclear power has been demonstrated to be quite affordable, if it is deployed at large scale. France, South Korea, Russia, China, Japan, and the U.S. have demonstrated this. There are more than 30 countries now generating nuclear electricity. We can make it expensive, but we don’t need to.
Nuclear power plants can operate for at least 80 years before they wear out.
If, without any prior information, we listed the characteristics of an ideal power source, it would look an awful lot like nuclear power.