Most liberals and many republicans are quick to consider "alternative energy sources" in spite of their huge financial burden to our economy, and dismiss nuclear power plants as dangerous and their waste as potentially disastrous. Let us take a closer look at the facts of the derivation of electricity from nuclear plants and why building more nuclear plants is the best possible energy policy.

It is first useful to describe the fairly simple process by which electricity is derived from uranium in a nuclear power plant. Uranium-235 is a unique isotope (type) of uranium in that it can absorb neutrons and split into completely different elements. These isotopes of the elements that are "created" are also unstable, so they too undergo radioactive decay. This chain-reaction process of fission releases an immense amount of energy, which, in a nuclear plant, comes into direct contact with water. Given so much energy, the water molecules move faster, and are thus at a higher temperature. The hot water gives off literally tons of steam, which is controlled in pipes to drive a steam turbine, which uses magnetic properties to spin a generator and voila: electricity.

The uranium is housed in pellets that are about the size of the tip of your little finger and are made of a material designed to absorb neutrons. Several hundred pellets are grouped into bundles that can be raised in and out of water to control the speed of the uranium's decay. The containment structure of the reaction is a concrete dome several feet thick that has been tested to withstand the force of a jet crashing into it.

The steam is condensed into water and transferred by pipes into a large body of water, often an ocean. The temperature of a small volume of the water is slightly increased, but this temperature increase has been rigorously studied and found not to harm marine species in any way.

The "spent" nuclear fuel is transported in 3-feet thick steel containers to a waste site, which can be on the grounds of the power plant. Although the waste remains toxic for a few hundred years, 95% of it can be reprocessed to create even more energy, which reduces the volume of waste is reduced by 90%.

Nuclear fission is undoubtedly cleaner than burning coal, and more practical and profitable than wind or solar energy. Environmentalists should be rejoicing at its prospects.

In 1979, the infamous Three Mile Island incident left not one person dead or injured. Chernobyl, which occurred in 1986, was caused by knuckle-headed practices forbidden by today's successful, strict security measures.

A final fact: a 2007 story broadcast on the 60 Minutes program revealed that France, which derives 75% of its electricity from nuclear plants, has the cleanest air of any industrialized country and the cheapest electricity in Europe.

What's not to like about nuclear power plants?

Learn more about this author, Alexander Chick.
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