For a long time, the future of nuclear power looked promising. It brought about results that nothing else could mirror. The trouble is after the nuclear power industry faced devastating events such as those at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and more recently Fukushima, people began to lose hope, and investors instead started focusing on more upcoming, renewable energy sources such as solar power. Although the last event wasn’t as bad as it could have been, there was a still a mass evacuation carried out which cost Japan a whole lot of money.
However, after the mass evacuation, experts discovered that the radioactive levels weren’t as bad as they first thought and many have suggested they overreacted. And now, many countries have found ways to successfully store radioactive waste underground too, including France and Finland. So, compared to the real damage that fossil fuel emissions do, creating energy via nuclear power is a breath of fresh air. But, it’s not that easy, and the nuclear power is at real risk of diminishing completely over the next few years.
Apart from safety, another major reason why people have backed away from nuclear power projects is down to the cost. Building a nuclear power plant is no cheap task. It’s estimated to cost around $9 billion to build a nuclear power plant in the United States which is more than Apple Inc borrowed in the whole of 2016. That’s also more than 1,000 times the cost of a new fracking well and more than 3,000 times the cost of the world’s largest solar plant.
So it’s not just that all of a sudden nuclear power has become really bad, it’s just that many other forms of energy harvesting are far more efficient. One day we may have nuclear fission reactors that could change things again, but for now, at least, nuclear power will be taking a step back as other forms of renewable energy such as wind and solar come shining through.
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