Yonngwang Nuclear Power Station in Jeonnam, South Korea.
Since man first harnessed the power of fire, we have sought ever more abundant sources of energy to fuel the processes of civilisation. Today is no different from five thousand years ago in that regard except on the issue of scale. As society has evolved, so has the need for energy and ensuring that we have secure, abundant, affordable supplies is always a challenge, particularly when the need to minimise environmental impact is high on the list of considerations. The large diversity in energy mixes from region to region throughout the world reflects the truth that no energy source is a panacea, but nuclear fission has the qualities that make it an important contribution to answering this challenge.
Powerful and plentiful
If we use all uranium and thorium to its full potential, nuclear power can provide our needs for over 50,000 years and it would not require strip-mining the entire planet to achieve this. The fission of one nucleus of uranium-235 yields over 20,000,000 times the energy of the combustion of one molecule of methane. While a large coal-fired power station needs many trainloads of fuel per day, a similarly sized nuclear power station will only need a truckload of fresh fuel per year. This means that nuclear power is not subject to the same price fluctuations as fossil fuels, which are dependent on a constant stream of fuel. This means that nuclear power can be depended on when on cloudy, calm days amid political turmoil with fossil fuel providers, other sources fail.
Clean and compact
Nuclear power is not what most possible would consider when thinking of clean forms of power, but it is in fact one of the cleanest. A nuclear power station does not emit any significant amount of pollution into the atmosphere, from particulates to heavy metals to sulphur dioxide. In fact, because all the by-products are contained, the local residents of a coal-fired power station will receive a higher dosage of radiation than the local residents of a nuclear power station. The nuclear industry manages its waste far more responsibly than any other industry, including those that deal with some very dangerous chemical waste. This is made possible because, since the fuel put into the cycle is so small in quantity, the waste taken out is also very small in quantity. Despite the furore over radioactive wastes, it is in fact compact and easy to handle, far easier than the massive quantities of chemical wastes from other industries.
Safe and secure
A nuclear engineer cannot stub his toe without the press causing uproar about the close shave with disaster we nearly had. But behind the sensationalism is the simple fact that compared to other large scale sources of energy, nuclear power is by far the safest. Apart from Chernobyl, no member of the public has come to harm as a result of the civil use of nuclear power and the workers too find their working environment statistically safer than office work. This record is ensured through the most hardened engineering outside of the military. The containment structures protecting every Western reactor can withstand a hit from a fully loaded airliner protecting the reactor from harm. It can also keep any melted fuel contained inside ensuring that in the worst malfunctions, the public are protected from any harm. Whether through accident or malice, the engineering principle of defence-in-depth and the rigid accounting of all materials helps to ensure that nuclear power remains the safest large scale power source around.
The bottom line
Those that can sustain themselves on low cost fossil fuels will no doubt find that an economically preferable option to nuclear. But with supplies becoming increasingly unstable, the reliability of nuclear power will look very competitive indeed. New Generation III+ reactors are cheaper and quicker to build, use less material, which would require disposal at the end of the reactor life, are cheaper and more reliable to operate and produce less radioactive waste.
If you want stable, affordable power, not vulnerable to day-to-day price fluctuations, power that leaves the air clean, power that produces waste in small, manageable quantities, power that has proven itself as the safest means of large scale generation, then nuclear power fits.