Environmentalists whine about carbon emissions and global warming and seem to totally forget that we already have a source of energy available to us that is way cleaner and way safer than burning fossil fuels.

Nuclear energy is one of those things closed-minded hippies* fear just because it’s new and different.  For consistency’s sake, if you believe in man-caused global warming, you should be in favor of nuclear energy.  But you don’t hear liberals clamoring for it, because they’d rather use global warming as a political mantra to grow a bigger government and increase regulations, not actually fix the “problem.”

But global warming isn’t today’s topic.  Clean, safe, powerful nuclear energy is.  Here are five reasons you should be embracing it.

1.  Reduced Dependence on Foreign Oil

In 1973, an oil crisis had a big effect on countries like France and Japan, which used oil for 39% and 73% of their respective electricity generation.  Sensing a problem, they invested in nuclear power, and now have less dependence on oil.  In France, about 80% of their electricity comes from nuclear power, and 30% in Japan.

How many times have you heard that America needs to kick its “addiction” to foreign oil?  Well, here’s the solution, staring us right in the face.  I mean, if France can do it, we should be able to, right?

2.  Life is Returning to Chernobyl

I took one thing away from my environment class in college:  the site of the Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine is starting to see life return to it.

Chernobyl was the worst non-weapon related nuclear disaster in history.  It received an INES score of 7, which is kind of like the Richter scale for meltdowns, except that 7 is the maximum.  In fact, a new ecosystem is “flourishing” there.  It’s not the “Death valley for the next 10,000 years” some would have predicted.

3.  Less Carbon Emissions

A big criticism of nuclear power is the waste:  you can’t exactly just throw radioactive material in the garbage.  Fair enough.  But burying these waste materials deep in the ground is still safer for the environment than carbon emissions:  just ask Al Gore.

The World Health Organization says that 3 million people are killed every year just by outdoor air pollution from vehicles and industrial emissions.  Compare that to the flourshing eco-system of nuclear power’s worst disaster, Chernobyl, and you get the sense of how much safer nuclear power is.

4.  It’s Safer Than Fossil Fuels

Nuclear power isn’t perfect, but it’s better than what we have.  As you saw in #3, more people die from fossil fuel hazzards than nuclear meltdowns.

But what about radiation?  Hey, good point!  Radiation is certainly a concern.  Coal power plants release 100 times as much radiation as nuclear plants with the same wattage.  According to Wikipedia, in 1982, US coal burning released 155 times the radioactivity as Three Mile Island.  If you’re able to read, that means fossil fuels have worse carbon emissions AND radioactivity.

5.  Cheap Electricity

After all that, you’d figure that if nuclear power was this much better, it would be more expensive.  Not true.  France, a country that heavily relies on nuclear power (80%), has the cheapest electricity bills in Europe.  Hey, they’re not always wrong.

So why isn’t everyone using nuclear power?  I have no idea.  You know nuclear power is awesome when we have such a problem with countries like Iran trying to use it.

People are afraid of the radiation, but they shouldn’t be.  A lot of studies show that even living near a nuclear plant isn’t dangerous - and not many of us do.  And if we get more radiation from burning fossil fuels, which is such a “moral” issue supposedly, why on Earth couldn’t we push for a switch to nuclear power?

*I crossed out “closed-minded” because the phrase “closed-minded hippie” is redundant.

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