The N Word

There are some things we can all agree are bad for the environment. Driving an SUV when we could walk, leaving the lights on when we go on a long trip, buying produce that isn't organic--those sorts of things. And there are plenty of things we can all agree are good for the natural world (or at least look good), like recycling, not littering, and riding a bike or walking when we need to go somewhere nearby. But then there are things whose environmental effects people really can't agree on. And the most polarizing of all of these is nuclear power.

Most people, including many otherwise knowledgeable environmentalists, see nuclear power as dangerous and unreliable. They give a variety of reasons for this, including radiation emissions, proliferation of nuclear waste, and the potential for the creation of nuclear weapons by terrorists. While some of these reasons are indeed valid, many of them are not supported by sound science, or even by common sense. Indeed, many people seem to only be familiar with nuclear power from old sci-fi B-movies and episodes of The Simpsons.

Nuclear power plants, for example, cannot explode in the manner of a nuclear bomb, nor do they continuously emit dangerous levels of radiation. They are not exceptionally accident-prone compared to coal- or oil-fired power plants; indeed, they are much less so, given the rigorous safety tests they must pass. While there have been fatal accidents involving nuclear power plants (Chernobyl and Fukushima spring to mind) they are by their very nature unusual. Finally, nuclear power plants do not emit greenhouse gases. This is demonstrated by France, which gets most of its electricity from nuclear power--it has surprisingly little greenhouse gas emissions for a developed country of its size. 

Nuclear power by itself won't solve the world's energy problems. But people serious about alternatives to fossil fuels should stop demonizing it, and realize it might be part of the solution they were looking for all along.