Nuclear Debate:
Why Nuclear is not a good alternative to Fossil fuels
Due to increasing concern regarding global climate change, does Canada need to consider using more nuclear power as a possible solution? I believe Canada should not use nuclear power as a solution to the climate change caused by burning fossil fuels. I’m against nuclear energy for many reasons, nuclear energy is unsafe, nuclear waste last thousands of years and Canada will be using less fossil fuels in the future.
Nuclear energy is dangerous. The Chernobyl Accident was one of the deadliest nuclear accidents ever resulting in 30 people dying in the first couple weeks, and 237 from Acute Radiation Syndrome and 31 of those died within the first few months. It’s believed that there could be a total of 4000 deaths caused by radiation cancer. Besides the death toll, quality of life impacted a significant number of people. But nuclear accidents didn’t end with Chernobyl, over fifty incidents have been recorded since Chernobyl. More recently, Fukushima, Japan in 2011. The accident was caused by an earthquake and over 100000 people had to be evacuated from the area.
Nuclear waste last thousands of years. Even after nuclear energy is turned into waste, it remains very dangerous and there haven’t been any affordable and safe ways found to recycle or get rid of the waste. Nuclear waste is radioactive and hazardous to both humans and the environment. If stored incorrectly, nuclear accidents could occur, and even if the nuclear waste is stored correctly it’s not a solution, it’s just managing the problem.
Canada will be using less fossil fuels. Due to new climate policies and technologies, Canada will have less need for fossil fuels in the future. The Pan-Canadian Approach to Pricing Carbon Pollution is a new policy which will reduce demands for fossil fuels and technologies like electric cars will be used more resulting in less need for gasoline. Canadas fossil fuel use is estimated to peak in 2019 and then decline slowly. Canada is also expected to double its wind energy use and triple its solar energy. While this might not necessarily be a solution to the growing effects of climate change it is a step forward in the right direction.
Nuclear energy is not a good alternative to fossil fuels because nuclear energy is dangerous, nuclear waste last for thousands of years and Canada plans to lower their fossil fuel consumption in the near future. That’s why I think Canada should keep using fossil fuels and explore safer alternatives to nuclear energy.