A Conservative Case for Nuclear Power

I had to write an essay recently in order to go to a JSA Macroeconomics program over the summer. I am going to post it here to share with you. I must note that I posted this AFTER I submitted the essay. 
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Nuclear power is not something that should happen—it is something that must happen. Other issues do not garner such necessity. One may oppose abortion in order to prevent the death of a child, support gun rights on the basis of deterrence, or oppose the death penalty due to the risk of executing innocents. But nuclear power is on a different level of urgency. I think we should have the death penalty and that we should not permit abortion but we must have nuclear power.

I suppose this argument is question begging: why the necessity? Why the absolutist position? The answer is simple: climate change.

I may be a conservative, but I do not deny the science. The science is overwhelming. Climate change is real, will harm us, and we are the main cause of it. Ninety seven percent of the published works support this statement. A conservative generally wants to reduce the size and scope of the government. If global warming continues, the economy will shrink, weather extremes will become more frequent, and sea levels will rise. This all leads to people becoming poorer. Poorer people require public assistance in order to survive. Although these programs should be reduced, I don’t want to see people die either. If we continue on the same path of environmental destruction, we would have to expand these programs.

So how do we prevent this? Simple: change the way we live our lives. In order to stop climate change, we must reduce carbon emissions. Currently, a major source of these emissions come from power usage. Other than returning to the dark ages—an irrational response—we must find an energy source which reduces these emissions.

We cannot rely upon current energy technologies. Although coal is abundant, it is highly polluting. Carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, mercury, and nitrogen oxides are all released from coal power plants. Coal currently produces 40% of worldwide energy. This is unacceptable. Gas is superior to coal and should be implemented to reduce pollution. But it suffers from similar problems—namely, carbon emissions. These conventional power sources have helped us in the past, but need to be slowly replaced if we are to be serious about stopping climate change.

Nuclear power is extremely clean. Nuclear power emits 29 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per every gigawatt hour. Coal emits 888 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per gigawatt hour, and gas comes in with 499 tons. This makes nuclear power one of the cleanest energy sources in existence. 

The most common argument against nuclear power is in regards to safety: atomic energy is unsafe and using it would be irresponsible. This is another misconception. Nuclear power plants are not nuclear bombs. They do not explode. What can occur however, are full or partial meltdowns. This causes large amounts of radiation to be emitted. Safety is the industry’s leading concern. The NRC requires that safety meets the standard of 1 partial meltdown per 10,000 years, but all modern reactors exceed this requirement, making it virtually impossible for a nuclear accident to occur in our lifetimes. Most partial meltdowns, like the Fermi 1 reactor in Detroit, led to zero radiation being released. In Chernobyl, the world’s worst nuclear disaster, it occurred due to mismanagement and the use of outdated technology. The reactor design used in Chernobyl, which led to the radiation leaks, does not exist in modern reactors and cannot be used as an example against modern nuclear power. The United States’ worst accident, Three Mile Island, there were zero deaths. According to Forbes magazine, more people are killed by wind power than nuclear power every year.

Climate change is real and is happening today. Humans are the principle cause of global warming, and the only way to stop the warming of the globe is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Other power sources are incapable of doing this alone; nuclear power is a necessity in order to reduce future temperatures. A large nuclear accident will not happen. If it does, it is better to have a few thousand people harmed than a few million due to climate changes. Conservatives must support nuclear power in order to prevent the government from growing in response to the damages of climate change. Nuclear power is the most important issue in our lifetimes, and should be supported by any well-meaning citizen.