Nuclear Energy: A Nucleus of Understanding
Does the idea of getting ten million times more energy sound interesting to you? The amount of energy released from one high quality, uranium atom is ten million times that provided by the burning of one atom of fossil fuel. This is the indispensable reason nations like Brazil, Finland, and several countries in Asia are currently working on adding nuclear power to their nation's energy arsenals. There are four hundred and forty two nuclear reactors already in operation and not making much news at all. While some of the richest, largest, and easiest to access uranium deposits on earth are found in Australia. The United States built its last nuclear reactor in 1978 due to tremendous resistance and fear about the safety of such power plants and the radioactive waste by-product or spent fuel it creates. Since between eleven and eighteen percent of the world's fuel comes from nuclear power, and that amount is bound to go up as the afore mentioned projects become completed; it appears that the anxiety about the safety and ability to control the radio active spent fuel may have been hyped up and blown out of proportion to the American public. At any rate, nuclear energy does offer a tremendous benefit in that it can produce enormous amounts of energy without any greenhouse gas emissions, a nucleus of understanding why it has so many proponents.
Nuclear power is being discussed for the first time in years as a viable energy source, especially as the green revolution ramps up and starts to gain more steam. Nuclear energy is a hot topic, sending a lot of web site traffic to science sites and discussion forums talking about the issue.
In the past, there was a lot of fear surrounding the use of nuclear energy to power cities and states. Especially in America, people were concerned about the dangers of nuclear power as well as the potential health risks of disposing the nuclear waste. As the fears subside, it seems that nuclear power is a real option.