What makes nuclear power a clean source of energy?
Our energy sources are diversified, including coal, natural gas, oil, and other fossil fuels, as well as hydropower, wind power, and solar electricity, among others. All of them are clean energy sources, although nuclear power generation still accounts for a significant portion of clean energy. Many people are surprised as to why nuclear power is also considered a clean energy source.
In reality, this is mostly owing to the fact that nuclear power generation produces very little waste.
For example, the following one is a uranium dioxide ceramic with a diameter of only 1 cm and is referred to as a nuclear fuel rod. This single fuel rod can generate 5,000 tonnes of steam, which is sufficient to provide a person's direct and indirect electricity needs for a lifetime.
Nuclear fuel rod
If you've had this thing for ten years and haven't used it in that time, you can now pick it up and use it for a short length of time without risk of damaging your body. Although extended contact with nuclear waste may be damaging to your health, it is normally disposed of in a specified site.
What we mean is that a single nuclear fuel rod may generate around 13,000 mmBtu of natural gas heat, which is nearly 325,000 cubic metres. The expense of such a large quantity of natural gas, which can produce 650 tonnes of CO2, might be as much as US$40,000.
Nuclear energy, regardless of how it is seen, produces the least amount of waste and produces the least amount of pollution.
Many people's beliefs about nuclear energy are based on various forms of nuclear pollution that have been exaggerated. Many scary claims claim that it will take tens of thousands of years for radioactive waste to become innocuous to people, and so on. Today's nuclear energy technology is actually extremely advanced. The majority of the energy will be released by nuclear processes, and nuclear waste will be treated and stored in a precise way, with little or no contact with regular people.
According to research, the number of deaths per unit of energy produced by the coal sector is 1,000 to 10,000 times that of nuclear power, even when tragedies like Chernobyl and Fukushima are taken into consideration. Nuclear power plants are also quite safe nowadays, thanks to technical developments.
Because nuclear power facilities emit very little pollutants, nuclear energy can be termed clean energy.