Germans made a mistake on nuclear energy

Article first published as The Germans Made a Mistake on Nuclear Energy on Technorati. Due to protests from over 200 000
Germans, Chancellor Angela Merkel
had made a decision to phase out all nuclear energy by the end of 2022.
This decision was made despite the
fact that nuclear energy supplies 22%
of total energy needs of Germans. Is eliminating nuclear energy a right
move? I think Germans need to revise
their decision. Our energy hungry
world surely needs nuclear energy.
Controlled use of nuclear energy can
surely benefit the human kind. Other countries with huge deposits of
uranium should not follow Germany's
example. Uranium needs to be utilized
to the full. Uranium is the most efficient and
economical source of energy. Consider
this: one gram of uranium-235 can
produce as much energy as ten
kilograms of coal. In a nuclear reactor
nuclear fission occurs when a uranium atom is split due to bombardment by
neutrons. When uranium is split more
neutrons and a lot of energy are
produced. The neutrons produced
cause further fission of uranium 235
producing more neutrons and energy. Thus a chain reaction occurs and
whenever uranium 235 is split, more
energy is produced. In a nuclear
reactor, the energy produced heat
water to steam which turns the
turbines and produce electrical energy. If compared with other sources of
energy, nuclear energy has great
benefits. A nuclear reactor occupies a
very small piece of land. A nuclear
reactor can be a compact building of a
size of a football stadium. Unlike in the case of solar energy which needs
hectares of land to accommodate solar
panels.
Nuclear energy is 24/7 reliable and its
source uranium is available in
abundance in the earth's crust. There are major deposits in Canada and
Australia. Nuclear energy is environmentally
friendly. Unlike oil which pollutes the
air through emission of carbon
monoxide and sulfur dioxide and also
cause global warming. Although solar
and wind energy are environmentally friendly, they are not as reliable and
convenient as nuclear energy. Sunlight
is free but it is not available 24/7 and
the availability of solar energy is only
limited to sunny areas. Wind energy is
limited to windy areas and electrical energy generation using wind can
only be practiced on a small scale. Although coal is inexpensive and easy
to recover in countries like USA and
Russia, it contributes to acid rain and
global warming. Combustion of coal
liberates harmful gases like carbon
monoxide and sulfur dioxide which cause acid rain. Therefore even though nuclear
energy production is associated with
potential radioactive hazards and
accidents, the world should not
eliminate it but use it wisely and with
extreme caution.