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And while those fears are certainly founded — Chernobyl, Fukushima and Three Mile all spent a significant amount of time in the news — they can also illustrate how safe the power source is. While Chernobyl had and still has a massive effect on the terrain and a reported fatality count of 40 people, almost all of the damage was due to a denial of the problem and a lack of accountability. This is proven by the Fukushima Daichii disaster — a disaster on par with Chernobyl — that was handled as it should be. As a result, there were no deaths or increase in miscarriages, stillbirths or physical and mental disorders in babies born after the accident according to the World Health Organization. The Three Mile Incident serves to further solidify this point — a total nuclear disaster occurred with no deaths, no increase in miscarriages, stillbirths or physical and mental disorders in babies, and a relatively short clean-up time. As a point of fact, nuclear energy has the lowest number of deaths per terawatt hour of energy production at 0.01 due to accidents.
Nuclear power is the one of only two renewable energy sources capable of matching the energy demand created by the industrial civilizations of today. To match the energy output of a single modern reactor, it would take approximately 400 miles of the most modern wind turbines — nearly the distance from Chicago to Pittsburgh. That’s not to say that wind, solar, and biofuels power will have no place in the future — the technology behind those sources of energy is constantly evolving. However, they simply cannot shoulder our current energy burden. On the other hand, nuclear energy is already shouldering one-fifth of the total energy burden in the United States and nearly 11% of world electricity according to the World Nuclear Association. The only renewable energy source to provide more is hydroelectric energy — whose dams can cause ecosystem flooding and affect the reproduction of endangered species.
We must start relying on nuclear energy now — it is our only way to safely and effectively handle the climate crisis with the time we have left. //
