Nuclear energy is often debated as a good source of energy. There have been a few major disasters caused by nuclear power plants that have made them feared by society. This fear surrounding nuclear energy can actually be detrimental to our safety because the use of this power is essential to slowing climate change. Nuclear energy is not a permanent solution but is significantly more efficient than fossil fuels in the transition to renewable energy.

How Safe Are Nuclear Power Plants?

The most devastating nuclear meltdown in history caused 51 direct casualties and a few thousand indirect casualties. This is a significant number of deaths, but when you put this in perspective of the deaths that fossil fuels cause each year, the number seems minuscule. Air pollution from fossil fuels is said to cause seven million deaths each year; fossil fuels make up around 79% of our energy production with around 5% being from nuclear energy. This 5% has been estimated to have saved around 1.9 million people from air pollution-related deaths. Along with this, the deaths that are caused by nuclear meltdowns have been significantly reduced as our technology has advanced and powerplants have become exponentially safer.

Do Nuclear Powerplants Cause Pollution?

Radioactive waste that is produced from nuclear reactors lasts for thousands of years. Although, the entirety of the nuclear waste the United States has produced can be contained within a football field that is thirty feet high. This is such a small amount of waste when put in comparison to the gigatons of carbon that is pumped into the atmosphere each year from other energy areas. Along with this, the waste that is produced from nuclear power plants is safely stored to not be released into the environment; the radioactive material is put into concrete barrels and sent hundreds of feet into the Earth so that it will not emerge from earthquakes and other natural events for thousands of years.

As climate change persists as a result of our fossil fuel production, we need to find a way of reaching net 0 carbon emissions. It would be easy to say that we could simply switch to renewable energy immediately, but we do not currently have the energy storage capacities capable of maintaining this change. We need to replace our fossil fuel plants with nuclear energy in transition to renewables in order to support the energy needs of our population. If we wait to develop the energy storage capacities necessary for a full switch to renewables, then we may risk causing irreversible damage to the globe. Nuclear energy is not a perfect energy source but is a “lesser evil” in the pursuit of stopping climate change.