COMBUSTÍVEL NUCLEAR: TECNOLOGIA PARA O ESSENCIAL

ELECTRICITY GENERATION FROM NUCLEAR POWER
IS EXPECTED TO INCREASE 20% BY 2025
Reports and releases with titles like this stress the importance of nuclear energy and
anticipate the worldwide resumption of investments in this sector.
It is a representation of the future brought forward.
ENERGY EQUIVALENCE
1kg of natural uranium
10 tons of petroleum
20 tons of coal
36 INB 2005 ANNUAL REPORT
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There was a time when environmentalists predicted the end of the world
by an atomic holocaust, throwing the seed of ecological awareness and drawing
attention to the future coming up: the fast progressing degradation of ecosystems.
Now the future has arrived. But not in the way they had predicted. From villain,
nuclear power moved to be the great ally of environmental preservation. In
about 30 years of history, stopped protesting at the front gate of nuclear power
plants and moved to the opposite side: that of advocating the use of nuclear
power as the only economically feasible manner of obtaining clean electricity on
a large scale.
And what made them change their opinion so dramatically? The
demythification of nuclear power as something extremely dangerous and
scientific advances have allowed to detect the true villain of environmental
degradation reported in the 1970’s: the fossil fuels! These account for much of
the emission of carbon dioxide and other toxic combinations that contribute to
global warming up and the consequent rise in the level of oceans and, also, to
the more and more heightened occurrence of tropical storms and hurricanes.
According to more recent data, conventional thermal power plants installed
in the United States are responsible for no less than 10% of the world’s total
emission of carbon dioxide, which has a strong influence on climate change,
whereas the 103 nuclear power plants installed in that country supply 20% of
the power consumed and by no means affect the environment. Also worthy
of mention is France, where nuclear plants produce about 78% of the power
consumed. Other countries also have uranium as an important source of
electricity, such as Lithuania (79,6%), Belgium (55,6%), and Japan (29.3%).ra.