Why Should Countries Use Nuclear Energy

Recent studies have shown, that it is possible that the demand for electricity could increase from 370 terawatt hours in 2010 to 470 terawatts hours by 2030 (Friends). In light of this, one of the many energy resources that countries will use to keep up with these demands is nuclear energy. Nuclear energy is the use of uranium that has been turned into fuel and put through reactors to generate energy, and is used to generate a large portion of the energy used around the world. But, nuclear energy is not as good as it sounds, countries should stop using nuclear energy and start using renewable energy because nuclear energy costs billions of dollars every year to build plants and maintain them, there is no where to deposit the nuclear waste,
Nuclear energy creates waste from the uranium that is used, it cannot be thrown away and the waste goes through many things before it is even safe to store it. The process of waste is more frequent than some might think; every two years a third of the uranium core in the reactors must be replaced and since the waste cannot be deposited it must be placed in a dry cask, but before it is ready it must sit in a cooling tank for 5 years until it is cold enough to be placed in the cask (Stockton). This step that comes with the use of nuclear energy, is a process that would be unnecessary if countries were to start using renewable energy because the resources used can be deposited and are not harmful to the environment. Also, having to replace, cool, and dry caste waste brings in extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere because more uranium must be mined, more the energy the plant is making is wasted on powering the cooling tanks for 5 years non stop, and also costing even more money buying or building the casts and to buy somewhere to store all of the casts after the cooled uranium is put into
It has been shown, that the 99 reactors in the United states account for 60 percent of our carbon free electricity (Alexander). This is an important factor to many, especially knowing that the United States alone uses and creates a large portion of the electricity generated around the world. On the other hand, many find that carbon free energy does not actually exist. In fact, a large nuclear energy plant can make up to 250,000 tons of carbon dioxide every year, many steps in the process of creating nuclear energy like, mining uranium ore, refining and enriching fuel, building the plant, and operating it are all part of the release of large amounts of carbon dioxide (Clayton). Although, the carbon production from operating the plant is very little and is advertised as carbon free, many fail to inform people of the carbon production before the plant even starts running. For example, mining uranium ore, refining and enriching the fuel, as well as building the plants creates large amounts of carbon to be released into the atmosphere. Even though carbon free energy is most likely not possible right now, many of the renewable energy options only release small amounts of carbon into the air when they are being