Is Nuclear Energy the way forward?

    In 1986 the world witnessed the most notorious nuclear power plant explosion ever. The consequences were catastrophic, and it left a deep scar in the minds of the so many people who were subjected to the radiation, or were forced to Evacuate from Pripyat which is now nothing but a cold ghost city with no life whatsoever. Even to this day it still is considered dangerous to stay in Pripyat for prolonged periods of time since there still is some radiation left from what once made history - The Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

   

    Now there are fears that a similar scenario is on its way to hit Japan, and hit it hard. On March 11th 2011, an earthquake rated at 9 on the Richter scale reached Japan, and later triggered a deadly Tsunami. Despite the highly developed emergency services and educated population, the death toll has been estimated at above 5000 as of yet, and there still are some 8606 people missing. The main problem however, arises from all four reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant which have been affected by the earthquake. Japanese authorities are desperately trying to retain control of the reactors' rods which are rapidly heating up, and are likely to melt, by which time they would have released a massive amount of radiation.

   

    And this begs the following question: Is nuclear energy the only path there is to take to overcome energy insecurity and even scarcity as it is in Japan's case? To some extent, the answer may still be 'yes' because after all, the 1986 accident in Ukraine happened because of inadequate workforce and uncontrolled experiments, and the Japanese reactors are endangered because the technology used in them dates to as far back as 1971. Nuclear reserves are still quite abundant meaning that there still is material worth exploring, and if safety becomes a priority, which it seems to be not, then the danger associated with nuclear power plants can be greatly diminished.

   

    Nonetheless, many countries have decided to play on the safe side, and the first nation to take drastic precautions was Germany, which temporarily shut down seven of its nuclear power plants. What is more, Angela Merkel stated that every single power plant constructed prior the 1980's shall be taken offline as soon as possible, and thorough safety checks will be undertaken to make sure that the remaining power plants will be safe enough if a disaster is to ever strike.



    The United States is the other industrial Goliath with immense energy demands. The USA has previously experienced severe shortages of electricity when the 2000/2001 Californian blackouts rolled through the state of California, even though it is speculated that Enron created artificial scarcity in order to keep electricity prices high. But even so, energy demand is soaring and it becomes increasingly challenging to meet the expectations of the industries and domestic consumers alike.



    Currently there are 104 nuclear power plants across the United States of America, and there are raised concerns about those which are positioned on the Californian coast near the San Andreas fault. Furthermore, Professor Richard Denning from the Ohio State University revealed that all of the plants are very similar in terms of structure and technology to those found in Japan. This has recently raised awareness across the Californian population concerning their future safety when it comes to nuclear power, since some 20.8% of California's electricity is derived from Nuclear Power.

 

    China as it is widely known, is the most voracious consumer of energy. In 2009 alone, it consumed 2,525 million tonnes of oil, which is four per cent more than the United States of America. And even though China is notoriously known for its biblical H.E.P development, the ''Three Gorges Dam'', only 15% of the electricity comes from this clean and renewable source. Some 23% of electricity is produced from oil and the huge gap that is left, is easily filled by coal, which is by far the main energy source in China. As the economy grows and rural-urban migration increases, demands for energy shall double, and triple in a very short time frame meaning that China will sooner or later resort to building a larger amount of nuclear power stations.

 

    Should this be addressed as an issue though? All in all, there have been only two major nuclear power plant accidents in the world, one of which turned to be so deadly because of the Soviet propaganda and censorship at the time. If substantial investments are injected into building new highly technological and well protected nuclear power plants, there is no apparent reason for people and governments to voice their displeasure concerning nuclear power plants. Nuclear technology is likely to prevail in the near future, until a cleaner, more affordable and easily applicable alternative gets discovered.