Nuclear Energy: Is it the Answer to the Problem of Climate Change?

For too many environmentalists concerned with global warming, nuclear energy is today’s Devil’s excrement. They condemn it for its production and use of radioactive fuels and for the supposed problem of disposing of its waste. Their condemnation of this efficient, low-carbon source of baseload energy is misplaced. Far from being the Devil’s excrement, nuclear power can be, and should be, one major component of our rescue from a hotter, more meteorologically destructive world. Like all energy sources, nuclear power has advantages and disadvantages. This paper seeks to provide a foundation of what nuclear energy actually is, what are its feasibility both in terms of economy and environment, followed by an econometric model that studies the positive impacts of nuclear energy at the aggregate level. The penultimate section of the paper focuses on major nuclear attacks and disasters that have occurred during the course of human history.