e of the polices should be the utilization of nuclear energy. For how long will nuclear power be available? Present reactors that use only the U-235 in natural uranium are very likely good for hundreds of years. Bernard Cohen has shown that with breeder reactors, we can have plenty of energy for some billions of years. Cohen’s argument is based on using uranium from seawater. Other people have pointed out that there is more energy in the uranium impurity in coal then it could come from burning the coal. There is also an abundance of uranium in granite. None of these sources are likely to be used in the next thousand years, because there is plenty of much more economically extracted in customary uranium combinations. A power reactor contains a center with a large number of fuel rods. The power level that can be used is limited to avoid letting the fuel rods get too hot. The heat from the fuel rods is absorbed by water, which is used to generate steam to drive the turbines that generate the electricity. After a couple of years, enough of the U-235 has been converted to fission products and the fission products have built up enough so that the fuel rods must be removed and replaced by new ones. What to do with the spent fuel rods is what, I feel, causes the most fuss concerning nuclear power. Now that we have the greater understanding of how nuclear energy is produced and how important it is in one aspect, we must now (more educated) listen to the fears and recognize that they are purely unenlightened assumptions.Are nuclear power plants perfectly safe? No. Nothing is perfectly safe, but they are safe enough to be relied upon as a source of energy. The most dominant misconception concerns the hazards of radiation. The public views radiation as something quite new, highly mysterious, and extremely dangerous. Actually, there is nothing new about radiation; humans have been, and always will be, exposed to radiation from natural resource...
