NOTICE- This petition is not directly created to oppose any leader or person, and will not be directed to anyone with enough votes. It is created solely for the purpose of educating as many people in the world as possible. BY SIGNING, YOU ARE PUTTING YOURSELF IN THE EYES OF CHANGE AND SPREADING THE WORD. 

Extremely educational Ted Talk: Click Here To View Ted Talk

According to Columbia Climate School, Using historical electricity production data and mortality and emission factors from the peer-reviewed scientific literature, we found that despite the three major nuclear accidents the world has experienced — at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima — nuclear power prevented an average of over 1.8 million net deaths worldwide between 1971-2009. This amounts to at least hundreds and more likely thousands of times more deaths than it caused. An average of 76,000 deaths per year were avoided between 2000-2009.  Likewise, we calculate that nuclear power prevented an average of 64 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent net GHG emissions globally between 1971-2009. This is about 15 times more emissions than it caused. It is equivalent to the past 35 years or 17 years of CO2 emissions from coal burning in the US or China, respectively. In effect, nuclear energy production has prevented the building of hundreds of large coal-fired power plants.

[Summarized] Nuclear power has prevented millions of deaths and significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions, making it a safer and cleaner energy source compared to fossil fuels

 

In 3 Reasons Why Nuclear Energy is Clean And Sustainable, Energy.gov states that 

"1. Nuclear energy protects air quality
McGuire Nuclear Station in North Carolina
McGuire Nuclear Station located in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

Duke Energy
Nuclear is a zero-emission clean energy source.

It generates power through fission, which is the process of splitting uranium atoms to produce energy. The heat released by fission is used to create steam that spins a turbine to generate electricity without the harmful byproducts emitted by fossil fuels.

According to the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the United States avoided more than 471 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2020. That’s the equivalent of removing 100 million cars from the road and more than all other clean energy sources combined.

It also keeps the air clean by removing thousands of tons of harmful air pollutants each year that contribute to acid rain, smog, lung cancer and cardiovascular disease.

2. Nuclear energy’s land footprint is small
DeSoto County Florida solar power system
A 25 megawatt solar power system in DeSoto County, Florida
NREL
Despite producing massive amounts of carbon-free power, nuclear energy produces more electricity on less land than any other clean-air source.

A typical 1,000-megawatt nuclear facility in the United States needs a little more than 1 square mile to operate. NEI says wind farms require 360 times more land area to produce the same amount of electricity and solar photovoltaic plants require 75 times more space.

To put that in perspective, you would need more than 3 million solar panels to produce the same amount of power as a typical commercial reactor or more than 430 wind turbines (capacity factor not included).

See more comparisons here.

3. Nuclear energy produces minimal waste
5 Fast Fact on Nuclear
Nuclear fuel is extremely dense.

It’s about 1 million times greater than that of other traditional energy sources and because of this, the amount of used nuclear fuel is not as big as you might think.  

All of the used nuclear fuel produced by the U.S. nuclear energy industry over the last 60 years could fit on a football field at a depth of less than 10 yards!

That waste can also be reprocessed and recycled, although the United States does not currently do this.

However, some advanced reactors designs being developed could operate on used fuel.

The NICE Future Initiative is a global effort under the Clean Energy Ministerial that makes sure nuclear will be considered in developing the advanced clean energy systems of the future."

 

Please consider signing to spread the word and attempt to revoke the bad reputation that nuclear energy has. 

 

Thank you, Lily