What about Nuclear Power is not Good?

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Nuclear Power - Economics, Design, & Industry

Date posted: 07/07/15

Dr. Conca reports that over the last fifty years, nuclear energy has proven to be the safest and most efficient of all energy sources, from both the human health and environmental perspectives. In total, to produce a trillion kWh of electricity, nuclear takes less land, uses less steel and concrete, has less emissions, kills fewer people, and has lower life-cycle costs than any other energy source. These claims are well based. America has 62 nuclear power plants with 99 operating reactors comprising over 100 thousand MW of installed capacity that produces 800 billion kWhs of electricity each year - about a fifth of U.S. power. So what about nuclear power is not good? Apparently not much. A new report discusses the contributions of nuclear energy to our economy. The Nuclear Industry Contribution to the U.S. Economy, by economists Dr. Mark Berkman, Dr. Dean Murphy and Mr. Stephen Lagos at The Brattle Group, shows that nuclear energy plants contribute about $60 billion annually to the American gross domestic product and over $100 billion in gross output. In addition, the study discusses the other economic and societal benefits of nuclear power, especially in comparison to coal and natural gas, such as 1. nuclear avoids 573 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year (worth $25 billion), 2. nuclear supports 475,000 full-time jobs, 3. in energy markets having nuclear power, nuclear helps keep retail electricity prices about 6% lower compared to markets having no nuclear power, 4. annually nuclear provides $10 billion in federal revenues, $2.2 billion in state tax revenues, 5. annually, nuclear avoids emitting 650,000 tons of nitrogen oxide and over one million tons of sulfur dioxide emissions which, according to National Academy of Science estimates, is worth about $8.4 billion, and 6. nuclear provides over two-thirds of our low-carbon energy and has prevented America from exhausting about 20 billion tons more of CO2 into the air. So why not more?