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Nuclear Energy and Solving Global Environmental Problems

Authors:
Vladimir Grachev
Natalia Kurysheva

Keywords: energy; global environmental problems; climate change; depletion of resources; accumulation of waste; pollution; energy sources.

Abstract:
This paper shows how nuclear energetics is connected to global environmental problems, such as global climate change, depletion of natural resources, accumulation of industrial and consumption waste, air, water, and soil pollution, deforestation, desertification, and loss of biodiversity. The first six problems are closely intertwined with the planet’s energy production. The use of fuels, especially of black coal, leads to a dramatic increase in air, water, and soil pollution levels, as well as to the accumulation of large waste amounts and catastrophic emissions of greenhouse gases. However, nuclear energetics allows harnessing energy without causing greenhouse gases and having the lowest carbon footprint all over its energy generation cycles. Nowadays, the impact of human activity on the biosphere has reached a global scale, changing the cycle of matter, the water balance of the planet, and radically affecting soils, vegetation, and fauna. Global environmental problems have become our reality. Anthropogenic activities have created new sources of pollution of the biosphere, which, ultimately, can create a threat to the existence of humanity itself. The comparison of the ecological effectiveness of various ways to generate energy shows that nuclear energy has an advantage over fuel energy sources with regards to all indicators and, along with water, wind and solar energy, forms the "green square" of the prospective energy development. Being natural-like as all the components of the "green square" nuclear energy is a direct embodiment of the sun’s energy on earth.

Pages: 14 to 18

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2019

Publication date: October 27, 2019

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2519-8483

ISBN: 978-1-61208-751-1

Location: Nice, France

Dates: from October 27, 2019 to October 31, 2019