Nuclear Energy Persuasive Essay

Nations around the world are trying to decrease carbon dioxide emissions. Their goal is to decrease these emissions enough so that the Earth does not increase its overall temperature by more than two degrees Celsius. In order to do this, current emissions will have to be cut in half by 2050, according to the International Energy Agency (“Technology”). This is a substantial decrease, especially in a world that relies heavily on fossil fuels. We burn fossil fuels in our cars, our homes, and in power plants to generate electricity. Solar energy, wind turbines, and nuclear reactors are renewable forms of energy to create electricity that do not emit carbon dioxide. Nuclear is very debated because some do not see it as clean or safe after incidents like Fukushima in Japan. Yet, it has worked in other countries. Other forms of renewable energy cannot keep up with a country’s need for energy. They are a part of the solution, but nuclear must be as well.
Electricity generation pumps about 9.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air every year, mostly from coal-fired power plants (“Uranium”). Nuclear energy, on the other hand, …show more content…
One reason is because they are very expensive to build. In his essay, A Roadmap for U.S. Nuclear Innovation, Richard K. Lester, an associate provost at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, estimates that new nuclear technology could cost over 10 billion dollars. This is well beyond the reaches of the United States government in the current fiscal state. He suggests leaving this spending to the private sector, where many investors have already shown their interest. He also proposes other incentives such as a carbon tax to promote “low-carbon energy generation” (Lester 51). In the long run, these power plants may be cost-effective. In order to promote nuclear energy, the private sector needs to invest and begin to propose plans to build new