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our Gross National Product, which is also measure of a nations wealth.
Protecting Our Environment:
Nuclear energy plants produce electricity through the fission of uranium, not the burning of fuels. Consequently, nuclear power plants do not pollute the air with nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, dust or greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.
America's nuclear energy plants reduce electric utility emissions of greenhouse gases by 20 percent, or 128 trillion tons per year. Without our nuclear power plants, electric utility emissions of nitrogen oxides would be 2 million tons per year higher. Emissions of sulfur dioxide would be 5 million tons a year higher. Thus, nuclear energy has drastically cut our dependence on foreign imported oil.
In France for example, from 1980 to 1986, SO2 and NOX emissions in the electric power sector were reduced by 71% and 60% respectively, causing reductions of 56% and 9% respectively, in total SO2 and NOX emissions in France (Trudeau 160).
Nuclear energy also offers an alleviation of the global carbon dioxide (CO2) problem that the world can do without. About 1,600 million tons of CO2 annual emissions would have resulted if 16 percent of the world's electricity now generated by nuclear power were to have been generated using coal. This is a significant amount. In fact, it is 8 percent of CO2 now emitted annually from the burning of fossil fuels.

Another important benefit that nuclear generated energy has on our environment is that the wastes produced are completely isolated from the environment. Would we have produced the electricity with coal instead of nuclear energy, at least 90,000 tons of toxic heavy metals would have been released, in addition to tremendous amounts of CO2, SO2, and NOx. Some of these toxic heavy metals include arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. Although the radioactive wastes produced by nuclear energy may be dangerous for thousands of...