Opening Statement

Ranier Ford
Nuclear power is a clean source of electrical energy and the United States Government should
provide incentives for the construction of new nuclear power plants throughout the United States
including the Four Corners region.
Contrary to popular belief, nuclear power plants are not emission free. Though the actual fission
process of electricity generation does not emit greenhouse gases, the various stages of the
nuclear process requires exuberant amounts of energy. Almost all of the energy needed for
productions such as mining and uranium enrichment comes in the form of fossil fuels. This
means that nuclear power indirectly generates a high amount of greenhouse gas emission.
In addition to greenhouse gases, a chlorofluorocarbon gas gets emitted during the process of
enriching uranium. This particular gas is 10,000 to 20,000 times more efficient as an atmospheric
heat trapper than CO2, but it is also a pollutant and potent destroyer of the ozone layer.
Recently, a plan was proposed to expand a uranium deposit located in the US. This expansion
will take uranium production from 4,000 tonnes of uranium oxide to 19,000. The greenhouse gas
emission from the mine will come from predominantly heavy diesel and other liquid fuels for
vehicles and mining equipment. The Environmental Impact Organization stated that up to 4.7
million tonnes of carbon dioxide emission will be created per year. This means that it would add
up to 10 percent to the U.Ss emission forecast in 2020.
A researcher at the National University of Singapore, Benjamin K. Sovacool, recently analyzed
over one hundred lifecycle studies of nuclear power plants throughout the world. Sovacool found
that the average carbon emissions from nuclear power plants are around 1.4 grammes of CO2
produced per kilowatt-hour.
There are 430 commercial nuclear power reactors operable in 31 countries and
approximately 70 more reactors are being built right now. Our environment cannot sustain
this kind of production rate for much longer. The benefits of nuclear power do not outweigh
the risks associated with nuclear power production. Throughout this debate, I strongly urge
you to keep in mind the statistics of greenhouse gas emission and how precarious of a
situation our environment is already in. As humans, the future of the environment is in our
hands and we must make choices to sustain it for as long as possible.

Works Cited:

Caldicott, Helen. "Nuclear Power Is the Problem, Not the Solution." Building Progressive
Community. Common Dreams, 5 Apr. 2005. Web.

Caldicott, Helen. "Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer." Google Books. The New Press, n.d. Web. 10 May
2014.

"Nuclear Energy: Assessing the Admissions." Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, n.d. Web.
11 May 2014.

"Routine Radioactive Releases from Nuclear Reactors- It Doesn't Take an Accident." Nuclear
Information and Resource Center. NIRS.org, n.d. Web. 11 May 2014.

Wilson, Lindsay. "Electricity Emissions around the World."Shrinkthatfootprintcom RSS. Shrink
That Footprint, n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.


Closing Statement
We all want our Earth- the lifeline of every organism on the planet- to be healthy and around as
long as possible, right? Well if that is the case, that means that we need to start taking immediate
action to keep our Earth safe. Relentless uranium mining driven by the desire for nuclear power
is contributing to the emission of greenhouse gases. Not only does the need for nuclear power
require uranium mining, it exposes dangerous chlorofluorocarbon gas which is directly linked to
ozone depletion. When the chlorofluorocarbon gas gets broken down by strong UV radiation, it
releases an atomic chlorine atom. A single chlorine atom can destroy over 100,000 ozone
molecules. The less ozone molecules there are, the less protection we have against UVB rays.
In other terms, we are running a high risk of increasing the rates of nonmelanoma skin cancer
and in malignant melanoma development. Ozone depletion will increase the amount of UVB,
which will then increase the risk of health effects.

As a listener, I would like for you to take a moment to think about the risks that we are creating
for our health as well as the status of the environment. A study done in 2004 by Jan Willem
Storm unveiled that nuclear power only creates three times fewer greenhouse gases than modern
natural-gas power. So, listener, is nuclear power really that much cleaner than other natural
resources? Or is it just a current trend that could potentially cost us our health and environment
in the future?