To reduce greenhouse emissions and save the planet from global warming, many countries around the world are trying to switch to renewable energy sources. To do this, they build solar and wind power plants, which occupy a huge area of the earth. Scientists believe that such sources will not be able to prevent a climate catastrophe as quickly as required - the carbon concentration will decrease too slowly. Thus, nuclear is considered the best substitute for solar and wind energy, and this is what scientists and famous people like Bill Gates are talking about.
In early January, political scientist Joshua Goldstein and power engineer Staffan Quist published an essay in which they recalled the dire prediction of many climatologists: a turning point in the climate will come about 30 years later. Scientists believe that even if all countries follow the example of Germany and introduce more renewable energy sources, it will take the world more than 150 years to normalize the planet. Also, scientists noted that a large area of land is needed to build wind and solar power plants.
Goldstein and Quist believe that nuclear energy meets all of these requirements. In their opinion, erroneous fears caused by the Chernobyl disaster have severely hampered the development of nuclear energy. They stressed that the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is the only such disaster in the last 60 years, which has claimed far fewer lives than other industrial accidents. They also believe that nuclear energy produces so little waste that it can be put into a soda can.
Even Microsoft CEO Bill Gates is in favor of active use of nuclear energy. For his purposes for 2019, he spelled out an agreement with the US government to increase the use of nuclear energy. In August 2018, he announced his intention to build miniature TerraPower nuclear reactors, but the government did not allow him to do so for safety reasons.
Ramis Ganiev