Source Entry – “Nuclear Energy’s Bottom Line”

MLA Citation

Karma, Rogé. “Nuclear Energy’s Bottom Line.” The Atlantic, 26 May 2024, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/05/nuclear-power-climate-change/678483

Summary

“Nuclear Energy’s Bottom Line” by Rogé Karma is about the misconceptions about nuclear energy and why we don’t use it much more today. He explaining that a lot of the drawbacks relate to the rising costs of building nuclear power plants, and that they’re actually reliable and safe. “just because it might one day be technically feasible to power the entire grid with renewables doesn’t mean it will ever be politically feasible. That’s because wind and solar require land—a lot of land.” (Karma 9). One of the issues with renewable energy sources, like solar and wind, is that it’s costly to power and maintain them. Nuclear power plants provide exponentially more power than renewable energy sources, while needing less space and maintenance. Reaching net-zero emissions with renewables alone would involve placing solar panels on land equivalent to the area of Virginia and setting up wind farms spanning an area equivalent to Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma combined. “The safety risk of nuclear energy is often wildly overblown. No one died at Three Mile Island. Even including the deadly meltdowns at Chernobyl and Fukushima, nuclear power has most likely caused only a few hundred deaths, putting its safety record on par with wind turbines and solar panels, which occasionally catch fire or cause workers to fall. Nuclear waste can be harmful if mishandled, but isn’t difficult to store safely. Air pollution from fossil fuels, meanwhile, is estimated to kill anywhere from 5 million to 9 million people every year.” (Karma 5) It’s mainly activists and regulators who blow the threat of nuclear energy out of proportion, when in reality it’s completely our technologies have advanced enough to keep them safe from everything except human error.

Rhetorical Analysis

The genre is a feature piece. Roge Karma is credible as he was able to get a piece published in The Atlantic, which extensively reviews all feature pieces. The appeal of ethos is used as in the article links are given to many of the facts stated, and they’re explained in a short summary. The appeal of pathos is generally weak as the purpose of this article is mainly to inform, not persuade. However there is a massive appeal to logos as many facts that are stated, are explained well and given comparisons that anyone would be able to understand. The audience is the general public who have a negative perception as to why we don’t use nuclear energy. The purpose of this article is to explain the actual reason we don’t use nuclear power, in order to clear up that negative perception. The occasion is the growing need for alternative resources that’ll be less costly than other renewable energy sources. The source, The Atlantic, is known as a generally reliable source and has won Pulitzer prizes for its feature writing. The information is current, as we’re looking for safe alternative energy sources to provide a constant supply of power for the nation, and be environmentally friendly.

Notable Quotes

“But just because it might one day be technically feasible to power the entire grid with renewables doesn’t mean it will ever be politically feasible. That’s because wind and solar require land—a lot of land.” (Karma 9)

“The Department of Energy estimates that the country must triple its nuclear-power output by 2050 to be on track for its climate targets. For all the recent progress in wind and solar energy, renewables on their own almost certainly won’t be enough. Arguably, then, we have no choice but to figure out how to build nuclear plants affordably again.” (Karma 2)

“Nuclear-energy advocates argue that these regulations were mostly unnecessary. All they did, in this telling, was make plants so expensive and slow to build that utility companies turned back to coal and gas. Activists and regulators had overreacted and killed America’s best shot at carbon-free energy” (Karma 4)

“Nuclear waste can be harmful if mishandled, but isn’t difficult to store safely. Air pollution from fossil fuels, meanwhile, is estimated to kill anywhere from 5 million to 9 million people every year.” (Karma 5)