What advantage does nuclear power have over fossil fuels?
Fossil energy has a limited supply and is mostly based on foreign contributions. The benefit to nuclear energy is that you can have it home-grown indefinitely.
Renewable energy sources, such as the ones presented by Bill Gates at a Ted Talk are the best option, but nuclear is the lesser of two evils when it comes to energy sources. Some of the top benefits nuclear energy has over fossil fuels include the following:
| Nuclear | Fossil |
|---|---|
| Indefinite supply | Limited to max 300 years |
| No known environmental risk. | Global warming and other catastrophic effects |
| Low air pollution | Moderate to high air pollution, depending on usage |
While the environment and cost benefits of nuclear over fossil fuels are most noteable, the nuclear waste and potential for environmental accidents are higher with nuclear energy.
Bill Gates on energy: Innovating to zero!
The first guy had it mostly right. While not renewable it takes far less uranium to produce the same power output as coal or other fossil fuels. It has a lot lower known supply than the fossils in pure quantity, but that is more than made up for in the high production of power that is produced using nuclear sources. With that being said the real advantage is the decrease in air pollution that is produced. For most nuclear plants the only by-product that is released into the air is steam which isn’t a pollutant like you get from burning coal or other fossil fuels. The main drawback to nuclear use at this time is what to do with the radioactive waste that results. Until their is a viable solution to this problem (and the bad public image of nuclear power) we won’t see a major shift into nuclear power in this country.
