New-Clear Energy

If asked a random person on the street what the first factor of environmental pollution is, most likely you are going to hear carbon dioxide from motor vehicles. This is a large if not the largest form of environmental toxin leading to global warming. I do acknowledge however, that the government on both national and state levels is trying to reduce this hazard. Multiple methods and suggestions have been put into effect such as hybrid cars, city buses, O-Zone action days, emissions tests and much more. There isn’t much to say about vehicle production of CO2, as big of a problem it is, as long as the government continues to create more conservational methods of transportation or even a new vehicle that uses alternative energy, there is no reason that I can’t see this problem dissipating.

The question is… “Is there another source that is injecting substantial amounts of CO2 into our atmosphere as much as vehicles?” Our power plants aren’t nearly as numerous as the number of vehicles out there; in fact the nation’s power plants amass to 600 total. 600 isn’t even close to as many cars you find in Travis or Williamson county, but when “a coal-fired plant creates about 7.2 million megawatt hours of electricity, or enough to satisfy the needs of 800,000 homes. It would burn more than 3 million metric tons of fuel, producing 500 pounds of carbon dioxide PER SECOND, as well as 1,200 pounds of ash per MINUTE and 750 pounds of sulfur dioxide every FIVE minutes!” Can you imagine the 600 plants creating that many toxins? Even worse, can you imagine how much energy an actual plant must produce to meet the needs of all the nations’ people and not just 800,000?

Nuclear power plants that can create all of the before mentioned energy needs for the 800,000 homes while not leaving a single carbon footprint behind! Nuclear power will out benefit our current method in almost every way. In fact the biggest concern that pops into everybody’s mind is a nuclear meltdown, which is probably due to twenty years of watching the Simpsons. It’s said that nuclear energy is much more dangerous than our current one but “reactors worldwide have gone 689 days without pause or fail.” Compared to the “24,000 people that die every year due to the coal-based pollutants sulfur dioxide and mercury.” The main fallacy with people’s perspective of nuclear power is that they “derive their opposition based on the magnitude of a possible accident, not the probability. In relation to coal-fired plants, “where harm the environment in both and certain but comfortingly slow. This allows us decades or centuries before global warming or acid rain claims millions of lives. To where as the worst possible case with nuclear power is the loss of a city.”
Nuclear power may seem the most dangerous of all energy sources, but in retrospect, it’s the most efficient and safest method that we can possibly offer. The top CO2 producing items are vehicles and power plants. As we continue to make strides to improve our vehicle’s carbon footprint, we could switch to nuclear power and already be halfway to eliminating the problem.

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Quotes taken from: "Meltdown" by Wil S. Hylton of GQ magazine. (March 2008)