Is Nuclear the Answer to Our Energy Crisis?

With lower carbon emissions, entrepreneurs who can develop nuclear technology are looking at an extremely profitable future.

Although we have made little progress on nuclear energy in the last 10 years, the burgeoning urgency to combat climate change reminds us that Gates’s predictions may come true once again. In fact, the demand for cleaner energy sources presents opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors to not only enter a potentially profitable industry, but also do so while making a positive social impact.

Those who find themselves unfamiliar with nuclear energy may shy away from its discussions, quickly recalling its devastation at the end of World War II as well as subsequent disasters in Chernobyl and Fukushima. However, nuclear energy deserves a lot more attention than it currently receives because it holds so much potential for our future.

For starters, it doesn’t just create bombs.

While nuclear weapons refer to the powerful and deadly bombs produced by either combining or splitting atoms, nuclear energy harnesses the heat released from said reactions to spin turbines and generate electricity for general utility.

It is not as complicated as one may think.

In pressurized water reactors, the heat produced from the reactor core is first used to heat the water supply (which is kept from boiling) before transferring heat to the second water supply, which boils and forms steam to spin turbines. A third water supply cools the second water supply to continue the process.

The most important reason why researchers and scientists have looked toward nuclear energy as the future lies in its extremely low carbon emissions. Since no burning of coal or other materials occurs during a nuclear reaction, nuclear power plants produce zero emissions during operation. Over time, the small amounts of emissions and air pollution involved with the entire process of construction, transportation, etc. are incomparable to the visibly dark amounts released during the production and combustion of fossil fuels.

If these studies are accurate, distancing ourselves from nuclear energy may prove to actually cause more harm than good in the short term — and undoubtedly in the long term as well.

The rest of the world seems more open to the idea of nuclear energy.

Gates’s initiative, though 14 years old, is not at all outdated. Technology like nuclear energy takes time to not only develop in a safe way but also to marinate with public opinion. Nearly 70 years since Russia built the world’s first nuclear power plant, there is no time better than now to capitalize on this opportunity to derive sustainable climate change solutions.

Since the highest setback for growth in nuclear energy is cost, investors would be smart to follow Gates’s lead and consider investing in the industry.

That is, if we harness the willpower to do so, overcome widespread stigma against nuclear energy, and pour resources into tackling existing challenges head-on.

Although Bill Gates spoke about energy miracles a decade ago, his assertions remain true. If we focus our resources and attention on innovating the nuclear industry, especially since the technology’s framework has already worked for decades, nuclear energy can very likely become the miracle of the 21st century. Now, our task is to derive a “new and improved” version that can address the cost, safety, and waste storage concerns that have prohibited growth in this promising industry.

In order to take climate change seriously, we must seriously consider reinvesting in nuclear energy. Let’s open up the dialogue about nuclear energy for a cleaner and more sustainable future.

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