Why Is The World's Nuclear Energy Output Declining?

Though nuclear power has harnessed after the Second World War and was expected to replace most of the conventional solids fossil fuels, to date its contribution to the world's total energy output is still less than 5%. There are a number of reasons for this.

Uranium the nuclear fuel is radioactive and can cause cancer in human beings and other living things. There has been much controversy over environmental safety, especially in areas where nuclear reactors are situated. Many proposed nuclear reactor projects worldwide have since been abandoned or suspended.

Nuclear power generation produces radioactive waste, some of which remains lethal for thousands of years. At present, it is stored deep underground below the nuclear plants. There is no guarantee that it will not leak into the ground and endanger plants and animals.

The Chernobyl disaster of USSR on 26 April 1986, caused by the explosion of the lids in the nuclear reactor, killed 6000 people. Many others have since contracted thyroid cancer or leukemia. It is estimated that at least another 40,000 people in Russia, especially in Ukraine, will eventually die from this exposure.

The cost of building and maintaining a nuclear reactor, especially that of the safety measures to be taken, is phenomenal. It may cost three times more than to generate the same amount of electricity from coal or oil.