WHY ARE THE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS ECOLOGICAL?

It is one thing to be a posture conservationist, with its porros tasting, neuronal slowness and problems of body odor, and quite another to defend the interests of the environment combined with those of society. If you are one of the first, I recommend that you do not continue reading and remain anchored in the ballast of the dogmas; If you are one of the latter, I invite you to continue reading until you become an ardent defender of nuclear energy.

Go ahead, I'm not technician or expert in this form of energy, but unlike many, I'm trained in the art of data interpretation, without passing the scythe political bias.

To begin my presentation, I will start by giving a quantitative argument. Neighboring France, a country of cheese and snacking, produces no less than 75% of its energy thanks to nuclear fission. Another 15% is contributed by renewables, making the Gallic country one of the most independent in terms of energy -without having more pollution- .This circumstance allows the French Republic to have one of the lowest electricity bills. of Europe, saving costs for both companies and individuals.

Let's compare this situation with Spain now. Our homeland, suffers a brutal energy dependence, subjecting our development model to the whims and pains of OPEC. We came too soon to renewables, financing energies that then - again, then - were not profitable and filled the pockets of businessmen and ecologetas.Importamos electricity from France at large, we have not developed the photovoltaic industry despite the very high insolation, and we suffer a light bill among the most expensive in Europe.

It seems that we have made a full fifteen.

As a result, industrial companies flee in stampede, looking for countries where production costs are cheaper than in Spain. To finish the job, the government of Felipe González paralyzed the development of the already old Spanish nuclear power plants, through a moratorium that prevented the construction of new reactors.

Already wounded to death, the nuclear industry agonizes while the Minister Teresa Ribera, threatens to give the final thrust, through the programmed closure of the plants between 2027 and 2035.

As a result, Spain will become more dependent on fossil fuels, while it would see how the price of the electricity bill scales another twenty percent. The industrial desert. The heating and the light bulb as new luxury goods.

But let's continue.

Another valid argument for defending nuclear energy is the ecological argument. Nuclear power plants barely emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Its pollution is significantly lower than that of fossil fuels, with only renewable energies being cleaner.

But one must point out, that there are two points where the nuclear ones are considered cleaner than renewable energies. The first of them appears if we take into consideration the entire production cycle, that is, the process that has elapsed since obtaining the raw materials necessary to start the activity. In the case of nuclear energy, the mining of Uranium, present in the provinces of Cáceres and Salamanca, as well as the transport process should be evaluated. However, in the case of renewables, these are plaintiffs of rare earths, mostly from China and extracted by a highly polluting process, which must also be accounted for in the process. And second, we must assess the alteration of the environment that both energies produce in terms of occupied space. A nuclear power plant supplies large areas of population, requiring a floor area much lower than that needed by a wind farm or photovoltaic park to serve the same amount of population.

Therefore, in terms of respect for the environment, we can conclude that there is a tie between renewable and nuclear.

And finally, with the argument that emboldens all anti-nuclear activists; the supposed insecurity of the plants; the inevitable existence of several Chernobyl a year. Well, it is necessary to explain, that the technology of nuclear power plants has evolved a lot in recent years.

Take the case of Spain: our nuclear power plants comb gray hair, they were raised during the Franco regime. However, they are always compliant with all standards and inspections set by the International Energy Agency, being more than safe for its operation. But if what is involved is to move forward, it should be noted that in Spain we have second generation reactors, while in the case of France they are already in the fourth generation. These advances allow greater security and use of resources, since it makes it possible to use the nuclear production waste itself to produce more energy.

Come on, produce energy from nothing like renewables.

And finally, it would play to demystify the zero event, that accident happened in Ukraine more than thirty years ago and that has produced waves of nuclear panic.

Chernobyl was a power plant built for military purposes, which, however, was being used improperly for electricity production purposes. One of its peculiarities, which increased its danger, is that the reactor warmed up more as the power increased, which sounds anything but good. Apart from that, the specialized staff was conspicuous by its absence, since the ratios of workers and security managers with posts in the plant, were tremendously inferior to those of the Western centrals. Another shortage in the list, is the absence of a containment building, which would have softened the consequences of the escape, without sending direct men to death to avoid greater evils.

And well, so far the point regarding security. To finish the article, I would like to say that, to achieve the long-awaited energy transition, we necessarily need the nuclear one if we want to turn our backs on oil. The International Energy Agency says that with nuclear decommissioning plans, we will need to pull gas and coal to fill the gap left by the atom and oil.

If we want a renewable and ecological energy in the coming decades, we will need nuclear energy for the times of transition. If not, the electrical blackout awaits us, along with the economic collapse or the return to our lives of gray gas, coal and oil, with friends methane, sulfur and carbon dioxide.

Nothing more and enjoy life.