-There are many ways that nuclear technology impacts the environment. The first way that nuclear technology impacts this is that when a nuclear reactor needs to cool off it takes water from lakes or rivers and this will effect the fish and other aquatic life that live there. The cooling process is also bad because when the boiling water is returned to the lakes or rivers it will contain a small amount of radiation from the nuclear reactor. Also heavy metals and salts build up in the water that are used in the nuclear power plant systems. These water pollutants, as well as the higher temperature of the water discharged from the power plants, can negatively effect water quality and aquatic life.
-Prohibitive Cost: Each nuclear power plant costs between $3 to $5 billion to build. The U.S. would need over 400 additional nuclear reactors to replace its coal plants. This construction alone would cost roughly $1.2 to $2.0 trillion dollars! Worldwide, 8,000 nuclear plants would be needed to replace coal plants to meet energy needs for the next 30 years. These plants would cost the world approximately $24 trillion just to construct! However, one would have to add the following costs to these calculations to get a truer picture of the situation: increased costs for nuclear waste disposal and plant decommissioning; increased costs for scarcer nuclear fuels; increased costs to safeguard nuclear facilities and materials from sabotage, terrorism, and diversion; increased likelihood of major, multi-billion dollar accidents and their disrupting economic effects.
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