Replacement Policy for Nuclear Energy for Peaceful Purposes: An Environmental Approach

摘要

Nuclear energy is unequivocally important in global politics and technological advancement. The creation of weapons of mass destruction has inspired policies which chill our development of nuclear energy for mass consumption: the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons(NPT) stipulates a global ban on NENPP.1 This nuclear approach to nuclear energy is virtually unchallenged, even though some doubts have been raised as to the feasibility of nuclear energy as a weapon. Former U.S. Secretary of State General Colin Powell recently summarized his experience with nuclear weapons by describing them as”useless.”2 In an interview, he stated:”After all these years of exposure to the use of nuclear weapons ... they are useless, and cannot be used.”3 Although nuclear energy has lost appeal as a weapon, it persists as a major source of energy worldwide.4 It is used to generate 75 percent of France's electricity,5 30 percent to 40 percent of Japans electricity,6 20 percent of the United States’electricity,7 and 20 percent of Russia's electricity.8 Although there is pressure to continue this trend of positive applications of nuclear energy, nuclear power generation poses significant environmental, health, and safety-problems; and as such, remains politicized. Research argues in favor of replacing nuclear energy with cleaner, less destructive renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power.9