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Advantages of Nuclear Power

Everyone knows that nuclear power plants are, potentially, very dangerous. But what are some of the advantages of nuclear power? That is what this post will cover.

Advantages (Pros):

  • Nuclear power plants are more efficient than ever before. New technology has made them more reliable (they break down less often) and safer. People for nuclear power argue that this is evidenced by more and more nations (such as China) building nuclear power plants.
  • Reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is a contentious issue. Proponents of nuclear power argue that, as no coal or fossil fuels are burnt, no carbon dioxide is released into the air. However, uranium has to be mined and transported to the nuclear plant. Both these activities require burning of fuels, so carbon dioxide is released. Also, producing nuclear fuel from the uranium requires a lot of energy, which also contributes to the emission of greenhouse gases.
  • Although the initial cost of building nuclear plants is high, the running costs are relatively low.
  • One reason the costs are low is that nuclear plants need only a small amount of uranium to produce a lot of energy. In fact, if the cost of uranium doubled, costs would only be increased by 7%. 1 truck of uranium produces as much energy as 1000 trucks of coal!
  • Reduces dependence on foreign oils and natural gas (like biofuels). America, for instance, imports a lot of oil and natural gas from other countries. The price of these products is volatile, and change very quickly. If the price increases quickly, consumers have to pay more for their electricity (which they may not be able to afford). Building more nuclear power plants means that Americans will not be susceptible to price rises in oil and gas. President Barack Obama supports this idea of ‘energy independence’.
  • Nuclear wastes can be safely stored underground (another debated issue).

Other Environmental Topics:

Advantages and Disadvantages of Wind Power

True Facts about Global Warming

(91) Comments

  1. hey guys this is a great website about nuclear power and even though its good for research you actually learn something from it.

  2. Hi:D

    we are students from kenbigh and we love science so much! It is our passion and we are glad to come across your website as it has helped us to achieve our goal in life which is to find out if nuclear power is good or bad. Thankyou for fulfilling our dream and btw science Rockz!!!!!!! Goodbye and goodnight:D

  3. This was an amazing website. Very informative and I got an A* for my physics talk thanks to this.

    love this website

  4. this site was really good, it helped me with all my chemistry homework 😀
    it would be better if it had some disadvantages of nuclear power as well as the advantages xx

  5. Thank you!! that is so true!! This really helped alot as well for my Physics report!! 🙂 I cited this page as my reference and i got a full mark for this one, A+!!

  6. Thank you so much!
    You have helped me greatly in completing my Science Case Study!!!!! I HATE science, but I found this quite interesting!
    Thank you once again 😉

  7. This was very helpful for my science homework! I usually don’t like science but I found it quite interesting how Nuclear energy does not produce as many green house gases as other things would?! I thought that was one of the main problems before I read this! xxxxx Thank you a lot to everyone who helped write this! But I do agree with the few people that said there should be some disadvantages aswell! Because usually in a piece of homework that asks you to get the advantages, you need to get the disadvantages aswell! Thank you very much though, It helped with my university degrees! x

  8. Great information! Especially like “1 truck of uranium produces as much energy as 1000 trucks of coal!” Very useful for my school debate :)! Would be funny if the person above me was in the same debate lol!

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