What are the dangers and benefits of a nuclear plant?

Question

What are the dangers of living by a nuclear plant? Does it consume lots of resources, if yes what? (e.g: cost to operate it, higher electricity bills to citizens, damage to environment, to invest in safety measures...)What is the major source of nuclear radiation in the earth's atmosphere?

Answer 1

Nuclear power is relatively safe.  The biggest risk is probably a terrorist attack against a nuclear facility.  Modern designs and upgrades ensure that a Three Mile Island scenario will not repeat itself.  

Nuclear power plants cost quite a bit to build, but they are very efficient once they are operational.  It is one of the cheapest, and most efficient forms of energy production.

The only damage that a nuclear power plant does to the environment are related to the construction of the plant (cement production) and the actual act of mining uranium.

There is no radiation in the Earth's atmosphere from nuclear power plants.  Coal fired plants actually put quite a bit of radiation into the atmosphere.

Answer 2

Benefits:

-lots of energy produced very cheaply (nothing can come close to producing as much energy as cheaply)

- Pollutants generated are not gaseous, and therefore don't harm air quality or contribute to global warming. Because nuclear waste is mostly solid, it's easier to control where goes (it won't end up in our rivers unless we dump it there).

-Furthermore, with the right fuel cylce, the pollutants can be recycled for even more energy.

Drawbacks:

- nuclear waste is very harmful to living things, and must be stored someplace safe until it decays. Usually, this means shoving it deep beneath a mountain.

- Because you have fissile material being stored and transported, there is always the need to protect it, since terrorists could concievably use it to create a dirty bomb.