Disadvantages Of Nuclear Energy

One of the main benefits of nuclear energy is that it does not produce and CO2 in the process of making electricity. However many of the opponents of nuclear energy claim that the amount of carbon emissions produced from creating a nuclear power plant are still too high. The amount of carbon emissions produced by an energy source can be measured by the life cycle CO2 emission which is defined as “ Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is defined as "the compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle."”(Subhan Ali 2011). According to the nuclear energy institute (NEI) nuclear energy has a life cycle CO2 emission of 17 tons of carbon dioxide per gigawatt-hour (US Nuclear

Solar PV energy creates energy from sunlight, as the name suggests, and turns it directly into electricity through large photovoltaic panels. The largest solar power plant, or “solar farm”, in the United States is the Topaz solar farm located in California (“Topaz Solar Farm 2016). This solar farm can produce 550 MW of power (“Topaz Solar Farm” 2016). When compared with the nuclear power plants previously mentioned in this paper the largest solar farm in the country seems quite small. As previously stated the largest nuclear power plant in the country is the Palo Verde power plant in Arizona which can produce 3937 MW of energy. Even when compared to the smallest nuclear plant in Nebraska, Fort Calhoun, has a generating capacity of 479 MW, which means that the largest solar farm cannot even produce 100 more MW of power than the smallest nuclear plant. Solar power is a renewable energy resource so many people believe that it would produce the least amount of carbon dioxide, however solar energy has a life-cycle CO2 emission of 39 tons of CO2 per gigawatt hour, which is more than twice nuclear energy’s 17 tons per gigawatt hour. The largest issue with solar energy is simply that solar panels need a very specific area to be able to produce energy efficiently. If the area has too many trees or not enough sun then the panels will not produce as much electricity. An area must also have an