Nuclear Energy

Before reading this article I was pretty much in the middle as far as the debate over whether to use nuclear energy or not goes. Knowing very little on the subject, to me it seemed like an efficient way to create energy, but also a very risky approach that may not be worth the potential cost. After reading the article, I'm still slightly unsure of which side I'm on, but I am standing a bit closer to those who are against nuclear technology.

One thing that really surprised me was how inefficient nuclear power plants were compared to using wind and solar energy. To me it seems like a no brainer that we should be focusing our research and money on advancing our solar and wind technologies, because not only are they infinitely cleaner, but they are also powered by renewable resources. With nuclear power, just like natural gas and coal, there is only so much uranium on the planet and even less that is actually at a high enough quality to be useful. Solar and wind energies, however, are infinite, unless for some reason the sun stopped burning, in which case I think we would have bigger issues to worry about.

Another point that I found interesting was the fact that not only are wind and solar energies much cleaner that nuclear, but are actually more efficient. According to the article, there will be an estimated "increase of 510 megawatts a year from now until 2021" while the number for wind power is nearly double and likely to continue to rise. It seems strange to me that we would continue to invest millions of dollars into nuclear energy that is dangerous and inefficient compared to other alternatives. One would think that we would instead put that money toward more efficient and cleaner solutions that still have room for improvement, like solar and wind energies.