The world would be a better place without nuclear energy. What do we use nuclear power for? Why do we need nuclear bombs?

All the weapons that have been created by a country have been used against them in the end. America invents biological weapons. It then sells them to Iraq so that they don't ally with the USSR. 30 years on America is invading the country that it sold weapons to in case they have those weapons? Now America has to make a better weapon because its old ones are obsolete and everyone has them. We have locked ourselves in an eternal arms race. What will come after the nuclear bomb?

At the moment all of the worlds nuclear warheads are with governments. Most of these governments have reasons not to launch them. However if a rebel state felt in was threatened then I see nothing that would stop them from using any nuclear capability that they might have. The country may have no hope of destroying its opponent but that isn't going to stop them doing as much damage as they can. Once they have pushed the button then there is nothing that can stop a nuclear missile.

If you shoot them down in the air then an electromagnetic pulse races towards the earth destroying everything that has a microchip in it. This blast can cover whole continents. It is estimated that if a large nuclear device were detonated over Kansas the whole of the continental US would be affected. This was confirmed when the US did a high altitude nuclear test over the South Pacific and it affected power in Hawaii. Then the radiation would be spread all over the world carried by the jet stream and trade winds. If they hit the ground then the result is even more impressive. A wall of energy is released that will vaporise anything that is in its path. Then there will be around a 10-20 mile area of nothingness extending from the centre of the blast in every direction. After there will be some remaining buildings but the radiation will be spread much further afield and will stay long after the wreckage is cleared. Is this the kind of world that you want to leave for your children?

The major threat that the world faces is from terrorists. Take September the 11th with a plane that has a nuclear warhead on board. All they need is a small plane, some suicide pilot and a bomb bought from a rebel state. The effect would be amazingly devastating. The whole of New York would be completely flattened and the surrounding area radioactive. The richest and most powerful nation on earth crippled by the very technology that it created, reduced to a radioactive wasteland.

Cleary the world would be a better place without nuclear weapons. How on earth are we going to achieve this? Well it's fairly simple. Take all of our nuclear weapons and decommission them. It might be argued that we would be an easy target; we have no defence against other nations. We would have no deterrent against other countries using their nukes on us. What would have stopped the USSR from firing their nuclear bombs if America didn't have any? Nothing, but then again there wouldn't have been a war if America didn't have the bomb and if America didn't have it then no one would have since they invented it. If there was a nuclear war then everyone, except America, would surely lose. All of this is true but having a few bombs is just as good as having none. Any sane person knows that if there were a nuclear war then America would come out on top purely because they have more bombs than the rest of the world put together. No one will be alive after a nuclear war so what's the point in worrying whether a country can't defend ourselves. Even if people do survive I hardly think that they will be proud of the fact that they have reduced another country to a useless wasteland. Even if the attacker were proud of the fact that they had destroyed another country, they would have to very stupid to send people from their country to finish off any resistance because the radiation would kill their own soldiers.

Surely we can use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. No acid rain, end our reliance fossil fuels, and be a cheap source of power. Nuclear reactors can pump out much more power than a coal power station and they only use a tiny amount of fuel. There is no need to dig huge coal mines and have piles of waste coal laying all over the countryside. It may do all of these things but is it really worth the risk. Remember Chernobyl, the small town in southwest Russia that is now thanks to this clean source of power one of the worse places on earth to live. There have been many more near disasters, which have been covered up or changed so it make it look like the government prevent the accident. Where does the peaceful use end and the military use begin? It is possible that a country is enriching uranium to use in your nuclear reactors but the same uranium can also be to build an A-bomb. There is no way to tell for sure if a country has only peaceful uses for its nuclear programme.

Then there is the issue of what to do with all of the radioactive waste that is produced. It takes millions of year for it to become safe. This material must be stored deep underground inside containers that must last for thousands of years. How can we be sure that this waste isn't going to get out and contaminate our water supply? What happens if in 2000 years someone else finds it and doesn't know what it is? How can we be sure that the information will be kept and not lost or destroyed? We can't just tell everyone where it is because the some terrorist could just dig it up and use it as he pleases. If we keep it secret then we risk losing it and then farming the land that it's buried in. Who wants to eat radioactive food? There is also a high risk of this material giving people who are working with it or just people who live in the area cancer. The government will claim that its only about 1% more than the radiation we get naturally but is any additional amount of radiation safe? The only sensible solution is not to make this waste in the first place.

Even though most sane people know that nuclear energy could kill us all we still continue on with our nuclear ambitions. It's as if we have to prove to ourselves, that we aren't scared of this monster that we have created. Instead of being arrogant we should just get around to fixing the problem before it gets any worse. Unless you want to be remembered by future generations as the one that almost ended the world then I suggest that we stop this before we do realise the sum of all fears and this time it won't be on film.

Nuclear Energy?