Why does our country refuse to switch to Nuclear Power?

Question

Why haven't we swapped to nuclear power yet. There has only been 1 major disaster and that was with the Russians, who were unprepared.

Its healthier for people who live nearby (compared to say a coal power plant)

Could be made secure easily (I think I remember hearing them say they crashed a jet into the side of a concrete wall with the same thickness as the type used at the plant and almost no damage was done)

Only two pollutants are Geothermal (very very very hot water, which we can just let sit in a basin for a week or two)

and radioactive waste which we ship to Nevada and bury way underground surrounded by a bed of lime)

Hey, the Oil companies could still make money off this (if the restrictions were lifted, which make it non profitable) and they wouldn't have to keep wasting money drilling and lobbying congress for permission to drill in areas.

Answer 1

All the tree hugging hippie enviro-freaks won't let us build them!  (Even though nuclear energy is cleaner than they are.)

Answer 2

The simple answer is that the majority of the general public are ignorant about nuclear energy.  They hear the word "nuclear" and the first thing they envision is a mushroom cloud from an atomic bomb...

The truth of the matter is that nuclear energy is a very safe and reliable source of greenhouse gas free energy.  

Yes, there is the issue of contaminated waste and how to safely treat, store, and dispose of it.  Personally, I'm all for those isolation/storage facilities such as Yucca Mountain in Nevada and the Waste Isolation Project Plant in New Mexico.  In both cases, the materials are to be stored deep underground in isolated and access controlled areas - and we're talking about 1,000+ feet underground.  

The accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl were both caused by people bypassing an emergency shutdown.  If I remember correctly, Three Mile Island was a faulty level indicator for the water in the reactor, which allowed for a buildup of steam...  A human bypassed the safety switch and manually added more water to the reactor.  Chernobyl was caused when a General or some higher up in the chain of command ordered the operators/engineers to bypass the safety switches/shutdowns so that they could try and get the required amounts of experiments run - experiments which the engineers/operators of the facility said were too dangerous...

However, if you think about it, the United States Military has been using nuclear energy to power submarines and ships for literally decades with a safe record - and the safe reactor technology has progressed by a huge margin since 1978 when Three Mile Island happened.

Answer 3

were useing it , just not talked about much, but we are not making any more of them because of the danger of them.

Answer 4

Because the neo-Luddittes do not want this option to be available to us and they have convenced a sufficient number of politicians that nuclear plants are dangerous.  If these so called environmentalist were truely interested in addressing man made green house gas emissions they would be marching in the streets demanding nuclear power now.  This is the only real option we have, and it is one of the few things the France has gotten right.  They generate approximately 80% of their electricity using nuclear power plants.  They have also eliminated the spent fuel storage problem by reprocessing the spent fuel rods to create new fuel.

Of course, reducing man made green house gas emissions is not the real agenda for most of the most vocal global warming activists it is instead either 1) an excuse to put the government (with them and their liberal politician allies in charge of course) in complete control of every aspect of our lives and/or 2) to disassemble our current technology based society and return us all to the "good old days" that we all lived before the industrial revolution.

They may talk a different story, but look at what they do, not what they say.  Truely "by their works you will know them"

Answer 5

ummmm i used to live in PA - right near TMI. Three Mile Island.

Its a NUCLEAR power plant, and all BUT blew up in 1979.

theyre here.

Answer 6

I think that the majority of people do not know how much nuclear power has changed and how much safer it is.  Another problem is where to actually built a plant, there's major NIMBY(not in my backyard) with nuclear materials.  Nuclear power that was used around the 50s had the problem with the waste, and where to store it.  Today, we have learned how to use the nuclear waste over and over again so that we get more power usage out of it and also have much less waste.  

Nuclear meltdown with a new plant is so much less likely to occur than the old plants.

Simple put, there needs to be more education regarding energy sources among the public.  Wind power is other major soucre of power that is not used, for not good reasons at all (such as a few birds will get chopped up and they may destory someones scenic view).

Answer 7

Which country are you in?

If any new countries try to have nuclear power they will be attacked by the US or its allies, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates...

Countries with nuclear power like US, UK, Japan, old USSR have all had significant radioacitve leaks/accidents; and no-one knows how to decommission them and store the waste safely for 100s of years.

They are not secure, our local greenpeace regularly get into & onto our nearby reactor.

They cost more to build, hence no private cos have built them without government subsidy. Cheaper to reduce our need for power by turning off equipment etc.

Answer 8

Most radioactive waste have such a long half life and they can remain active for hundreds of years . It is just not worth the risk , even though you dispose of it , it is still there , just because you can see it , smell or feel it , doesn't mean it's out of trouble. Radiation can cause cancer , mutation of genes , deformity of foetuses. Having radioactive plants around is like living next to a live volcano .

Answer 9

Three Mile Island was so close to melting down that it is just downright scary. Not only that but they DO produce some of the nastiest waste of anything man has ever created. And lastly, the mines that produce the fuel are dangerous too.

Lets stick to renewable sources.