What Makes Nuclear Power Renewable?
Its first worth noting that nuclear power is of incredible low carbon value: most of the carbon it creates is not in the process by which the energy is made, and its CO2 emissions are minimal.This is what potentially makes nuclear energy ‘green’. The debate over its inclusion in the renewable energy family, though, drew mainstream coverage in the 1980s. The argument goes that uranium is in effect an inexhaustible resource – the amount that can potentially be created outlasts the life of the sun according to this argument – meaning that the energy it creates is a potentially infinite, renewable energy. As is to be expected, the validity of this argument is highly contested: many take issue with the argument that uranium would last the billions of years to take to outlast the lifespan of the sun. Others dismiss its credibility simply on the basis that lasting an incredibly long time is not the same ‘infinite’.
