Why nuclear power will eventually dominate the world

Many of us probably by now, know of the Fukushima Earthquake that took place in April 2011, and the nuclear disaster which followed. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was a nuclear disaster that struck fear into the Japanese and in my opinion, far more dangerous than the earthquake itself. It even brought attention to its neighbours. That was all due to the fact that the plant had been severely damaged, causing radioactivity to leak out from their containments, and spread out into the open ocean and Japan. Up to today, the disaster is still not yet over, and radioactivity is still leaking from the reactors at an uncontrollable rate. Many of the spent fuel rods that were used in the reactors have burnt, release massive amounts of decades of radioactivity into the air. This event was one which was second to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which occurred decades ago.

All these nuclear disasters have greatly discouraged many countries from setting up their own nuclear power plants. Many of them fear the dire consequences of not handling the plants properly. Even Germany after the incident, has decided to shut down many of its old nuclear power plants, for safety precautions. However, nuclear energy is not something that can be easily said no to. Nuclear energy is regarded as a green form of energy, whose waste if properly disposed, cause very minimal environmental effects. The power generated from these radioactive materials are also immense, and contributed to 10% of Japan’s total power consumption. If not properly handled though, the environmental effects are dire.

Some reasons why nuclear power is attractive, is because of oil, a very un-environmental friendly fuel running out in less than 40 years’ time. Thus, the world needs to find alternatives to get energy. There is coal too, but it is a ‘dirty’ fuel, and causes environmental impacts too.

There are other green forms of energy, like geothermal, wind and solar. However, there are disadvantages to using these. Geothermal energy can only be harnessed provided the country has strong waves in the region , which are obviously very limited. Wind energy can also only be used provided the country has a lot of wind. Solar energy can also only be used if the country receives a lot of sunlight. Additionally, the output from solar energy is very low, and cannot really power many appliances. Nuclear power however, can be generated anywhere, and have high outputs of energy, and is also green(if its waste is properly disposed of). With oil running out, and other green technologies have relatively low outputs and practicality, one day, nuclear energy will dominate the world, with it being the most attractive. I only hope then, the containment technologies will be much more advanced, and thus prevent a second Chernobyl or Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster from occurring yet again.