Nuclear Power Is Not Clean ~ Global Warming and our Changing World

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Monday, March 31, 2008

Nuclear Power Is Not Clean

I used to think it was, but it isn't.

Some people still try to argue it is.

Here's why I don't think nuclear power is clean: it produces toxic waste.

There. Simple, right? Sure, we store it away, hide it, save it for a rainy day, but that toxic sludge builds up and builds up. Just like greenhouse gas emissions build up.

Hydrogen fuel cell technology will produce water vapor. That's it. That's truly clean.

1 comment:

Red Craig said...

Maybe too simple.

For one thing, all energy sources produce toxic waste. Wind turbines require a lot of steel, concrete, aluminum, and fiberglass. There always is chemical toxic waste. Solar-cell manufacturing generates toxic waste, actually a lot of it: lead, cadmium, mercury---bad stuff.

The reason nuclear energy is clean is that the wastes produced are very small in quantity. That allows them to be handled responsibly. No one has ever been harmed by nuclear-energy waste. It's so valuable there's little likelihood that it ever will cause harm.

For another thing, all renewable energy sources only work if they have energy backup that can go online whenever they're needed. That means nuclear energy or fossil fuels. Fossil fuels give off pollution as well as greenhouse gases, so nuclear really is our only option.

Hydrogen is not an energy source. To produce hydrogen requires large amounts of energy. By far the most efficient way to produce hydrogen is with nuclear energy.