The United States Must Abandon Nuclear Power Essay -- Argumentative Pe

The United States Must Abandon Nuclear PowerThe United States must reexamine many policies previously accepted as reasonable, especially its own national energy policy. As the largest overall and per capita energy consumer in the world, the U.S. needs to decide upon a reasonable source of energy for the foreseeable future, especially since its energy needs will increase dramatically during that time. With political instability likely to remain the norm in the Middle East, oil continues to be an energy source of questionable reliability in addition, current estimates of worldwide reserves suggest we may in fact run out of oil entirely in the next fifty years. Natural gas reserves are in fairly lilliputian supply too, and costs limit its uses as well. Another major alternative, coal, has become the nations leading energy source (providing more than 55% of the clownishs electricity), and projected supplies could last for hundreds of years (Sweet 49). However, the tremendous output b y coal-fired plants of CO2the major greenhouse gasalong with other atmospheric pollutants makes it every bit as undesirable as oil. The final major source of energy on which the U.S. currently depends is thermonuclear power, and many (including the author of a Time cartridge clip article in the April 29, 1991 issue) see it as a viable alternative, provided solutions are found to a few minor difficulties. Once the facts are known, though, it becomes clear that nuclear power (both fission and fusion) is not the answer to our current U. S. energy dilemma, primarily because it presents great risks and creates tremendous pollution hazards, and, further, because it also will continue to support the view quo of huge multi-national corporations dominating e... ...Dangers of Nuclear Power. London New English Library, 1986. Croall, Stephen. Nuclear Power for Beginners. New York Pantheon Books, 1983. Curtis, Richard, and Elizabeth Hogan with Shel Horowitz. Nuclear Lessons An Examinat ion of Nuclear Powers Safety, economical and Political Record. Harrisburg Stackpole Books, 1980. Faulkner, Peter, ed. The Silent Bomb. New York Random House, 1977. Greenwald, John. Time to Choose, Time 29 April 1991 54-62. Shrader-Frechette, K. S. Nuclear Power and Public Policy The Social and Ethical Problems of nuclear fission Technology. Boston D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1980. Stoler, Peter. Decline and Fail The Ailing Nuclear Power Industry. New York Dodd, Mead and Company,1985. Sweet, William. The Nuclear Age Atomic Energy, Proliferation and the Arms Race. Washington, D.C. Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1988.