 Electricity powers everything we know. People never really think where their power actually comes from. Power stations are rarely seen or thought about. What actually powers the power station is important. Our entire infrastructure comes down to the power that runs it. Current power plants are becoming non-sustainable and release tons of carbon emissions. Carbon-free electricity is becoming a large topic for debate. Renewable energy is most certainly needed to keep up with the growing demand of power around the globe. Nuclear Energy is a sustainable carbon free form of energy that should be utilized. Nuclear Energy has the potential to become the main source of power in the world. Nuclear Energy is the answer to the current energy crisis. It's highly efficient, carbon free, and sustainable therefore needs to be the solution of the energy crisis.  

Nuclear energy is created by a process known as nuclear fission. Nuclear fission works by shooting a high speed neutron at a uranium atom which causes it to split creating a large amount of energy (Lamb). The key to this process is that a chain reaction must be created. Creating the chain will allow the process to happen continuously without help. The energy that is created is then channeled into a pool of water that creates steam. Pressure rises pushing the steam through a turbine generator that creates electricity (Lamb). 

Nuclear Energy ranks the highest among carbon free energy in efficiency. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute United States nuclear reactors posted a 91.9% efficiency rating in 2014. This was record high for the US and keeps nuclear reactors the most efficient compared to other forms of carbon free energy. Several reactors received ratings over 100%. Efficiency is important. With growing populations comes growing power needs. Due to its high efficiency less power plants over time will need to be created to meet this demand if we stick to reactors. Less efficient forms of energy like wind farms will need to be higher in number to create the amount of energy needed to power the grid. Creating efficiency allows for smooth flow in society. Something as fundamental as the power grid needs to be highly efficient. According to research done at Northwestern University solar panels can only convert 22% of available energy into electricity. That is far too inefficient for that to be the solution to the growing energy crisis. Wind turbines post a 40% efficiency rating when conditions are perfect (Department of Energy). Conditions have to be perfect just to reach that 40% potential. When wind moves exactly 9 meters per second or about 20 mph that's when you reach that rating. Weather is completely unpredictable assuming that wind will move at or near that speed is not reasonable. Nuclear power is the only current renewable carbon free energy form that can produce power 24/7. With no wind on some days or no sun at night wind and solar power are left behind because they just cannot produce energy without certain conditions. Nuclear Energy provides the best output of efficient power possible. 

Its carbon free; therefore not effecting the atmosphere. Keeping carbon as low as possible has been on the forefront of environmental talk for years. With reactors being completely carbon free it allows for our new power grid to be completely carbon free stopping the increase in carbon emissions. Nuclear reactors create clean energy that doesn't seriously affect the atmosphere like most current power stations. The current crisis came about because burning fossil fuels for power is not sustainable. Fossil fuels create energy much like nuclear reactors do. Instead of atoms splitting creating the heat the fossil fuels are directly burned. This creates heat that makes steam in the reservoir which powers the turbine. This create harsh gases that are then emitted into our atmosphere. Even with all power plants being closely watched and monitored large amounts of carbon enter the atmosphere. Helping shape what is called the greenhouse effect. That effect is currently changing weather patterns around the globe. The Earth is slowly getting hotter every year. This helping to create what already is a large loss of environmental habitats. The ocean is rising every year as glaciers at the poles continue to melt. Nuclear power plants create no adverse effects on surrounding environments. Water, habitats, and surrounding land are unaffected by the power plant's operation. Along with that comes the ever decreasing pool of usable fossil fuels. The Earth has a set amount of fossil fuels in it. It takes millions of years for them to be created from fossils. 

With the ever decreasing pool renewable clean energy becomes something of quite large importance. Nuclear energy is renewable because a process has been created to recycle spent nuclear rods. Spent rods primarily have been just stored as nuclear waste which can be harmful to people. The new process allows for up to 30% of the original energy (World Nuclear Association). The process works by recycling the Uranium-238 and changing it into Plutonium which can also be burned in nuclear reactors. Plutonium is not an element that is found in nature but it fissionable in a lab. This allows for waste to be cut dramatically. Researchers are also in the works creating a new core that can burn spent fuel rods altogether without the process of recycling the rods. Reprocessing closes the fuel cycle by making the rods recyclable creating a sustaining process that makes carbon free energy. Closing the cycle allows for reactors to be sustainable on a renewable energy source. 

Nuclear energy is cheaper to sustain than current electrical power plants. Current plants have to change with fluctuation in costs of natural gas and crude oil. One of nuclear science's leading researchers found that electron fission produces 60,000,000 times more energy than the burning of carbon atoms which is what happens at fossil fuel burning stations (Kazimi). This means that 28 grams produces the same amount of energy as 100 metric tons of coal. Creating a large discrepancy in cost for fuel among the two types of plants.

Nuclear power stations also produce low cost energy. The only time large costs are an issue is setting up the plant. Startup costs of a new power plant are high but cost to maintain them costs for fuel are low. If uranium fuel costs do rise, the rise in price for electricity would be less than that of a change for fuel costs for fossil fuels. Nuclear reactors can last up to 60 years (Opposing View Points). If the startup costs are invested then keeping the plant running from that point forward should be no issue. 

Nuclear power has several economic benefits to its credit. The average power plant in America creates $453 million in sales yearly (NEI). Analysis done by the Nuclear Energy Institute has shown the every dollar a power plant spends results in $1.04 for the surrounding community, $1.18 for the state economy, and $1.87 for the nation economy. The average plant creates $16 million in state and local taxes and $67 million in federal taxes annually (NEI). Power plants also create jobs. Construction of a plant typically takes 5-10 years (NEI). At peak construction time as many as 3500 workers will be needed. The plant itself when completed will need about 550 jobs. The construction itself creates jobs for skilled workers like masons, carpenters, and electricians. Plant creation, though needing a large investment, creates a boom for local economies. Nuclear plants have the ability to boost economies both in the local area and statewide. In the state of Illinois the 6 plants created $9 billion dollars for the state's economy while providing nearly half of all power in the state (NEI). It also hold more than 28,000 primary and secondary jobs which on average pay up to 33% more than average jobs in the area. When the polar vortex hit Illinois in the winter of 2014 harsh cold temperatures caused several power plants to be inoperable simply because fuel wasn't obtainable for them. The nuclear plants all stayed operational 24/7. Reactors can have years of fuel contained in the reactor allowing for them to stay open (NEI). 

Proponents of Nuclear power plants claim it to far too expensive to be feasible. Nuclear power plants cost upwards of $10 billion to build a plant (Gigoam). The plant itself is a large investment but in the long run profit margin is high. Obama pledged $54 billion dollars to build the US' first plants in 3 decades (Gigoam). In the long run plants have been statistically proven to stimulate economies. If all $54 billion were spent to build 5 plants based on average cost. Planta boosts the economy $9 billion dollars each then with two years of all of them running the economy will have been boosted $37 billion dollars more than the original investment. Bipartisan support in the pledge of the federal loan guarantees have led to them getting passed. Members of both parties have shown their support to nuclear energy moving forward and find the loans are well spent discretionary federal dollars. White House press releases have also further shown that Obama believes, "Nuclear energy remains a vibrant component of United States' clean energy strategy." (whitehouse.gov) Obama shows continued support on nuclear energy believes it to be the future of energy in the country. Donald Trump, leading republican candidate, has also been quoted as saying he is, "Very strongly in favor of" nuclear energy. Both parties show support that future energy need will be met by continued building of nuclear power reactors. 

Nuclear meltdowns are at risk of having nuclear power. There are three famous meltdowns in history are Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima. Chernobyl is the nuclear plant meltdown to cause casualties due to radiation. Chernobyl was doomed from the beginning. The plant featured reactors with several design flaws made in Soviet Russia (PBS). Workers also committed egregious human error. Engineers with no knowledge of how the reactor worked decided to try an experiment where they run electricity directly from a reactor to water pumps to idle the turbine at 2.5% power (PBS). When the experiment was started late the turbine was powered down to fast causing bi-products of the reaction to build up poisoning the reaction. The deputy chief Engineer then broke several safety regulations to try and stabilize the reactor so he could continue his experiment. The breaking of the safety regulations and design flaws led to the eventual explosion of the reactor. Ignorant human caused this accident. The design of those reactors also were never used again. No reactors in the United States are designed those reactors. All safety procedures and protocols should have been followed so the reactor wouldn't explode. Scientists are certain that an accident of that kind will not happen. Three Mile Island was a partial meltdown of a nuclear power core. When there was an electrical failure on of the non-nuclear areas of the plant the turbine and the core itself automatically shut down. This caused a buildup of pressure to occur in the core (NRC). The relief valve was opened to relieve the pressure. When the valve was stuck open the control panel at the plant said the valve was closed. The core started to undergo a loss of coolant accident. This lead to the core melting down. The building contained the reactor stayed completely intact. The structure shield most of the radioactive release. Studies have shown there was no effect on the surrounding environment or workers. That was rated as the worst commercial accident on US soil. Everything from regulations to operator training was amended to make sure it wouldn't happen again. The US has proven to take extreme precautions to prevent nuclear meltdown. Statistics also show that those three meltdowns are the only nuclear meltdowns in 16,000 reactor years across 33 countries (WNA). Making it statistically unlikely another meltdown would occur. Hundreds of reactors around the globe run smoothly for years without any problems occurring. The US is fully prepared to take on more nuclear power plants in America. All training is done carefully and seriously along with the following of safety precautions. In 2011 a tsunami caused by an earthquake hit a power plant on the coast of Japan. Cooling pumps for power cores became damaged causing 3 cores to meltdown (WNA). It took three days to stabilize the cores. Due to radiation being released 100,000 people were evacuated from their homes. No cases or deaths from radiation sickness were ever reported. The people have been allowed to return to their homes as no lingering radioactivity was reported. In times of serious unpredictable events correct precautions were taken to shut down the cores and eventually allow the people to return to their homes. In times of such emergency current regulations have shown that they can be dealt with effectively with as little radiation release as possible.

Environmentalists claim that reactors leak radioactivity. In the process in the creation of the reactors all reactors are certified to make sure that they are completely leak free. All disposal of nuclear waste is closely monitored by government agencies to make sure waste is taken care of legally. The only chance of radioactivity leaking is when power rods are being put in. The chance is a quite small and negligible in the grand scheme of operations. Nuclear waste in the utmost serious manner. Storage structures containing the spent rods have been expertly designed to now allow a radiation leak. For nuclear power plants to acquire radioactive materials several licenses and notices must be made to make sure that any all radioactive materials accounted for and secure during travel to their destination. 

The United States has shown complete willingness to move forward with plans to increase nuclear powered electricity. Loans have been finalized with complete guarantee of them. Current candidates for the next president, with the exception of Bernie Sanders, are all in favor of nuclear energy moving forward. Regulations created by federal agencies are closely monitored by those agencies to affirm safety at all times. With crises in the past designs have been solidified and tested with proof of their operational safety in that of the incidents at Three Mile Island and Fukushima, Japan. The country is making efforts to increase our standing in nuclear energy. The government is support full construction reactors for the first time in decades. Nuclear energy is carbon free and nearly renewable. It's highly regulated making it very safe and provides large boosts in local economies as well income tax dollars. With the world crisis on fossil fuel energy and increasing surface temperature nuclear power plants have the potential to save the United States in both carbon emissions and costs on fossil fuels. Creation of new plants along with continued research to improve future reactors make nuclear power contain endless capabilities.

