Nuclear Power

Nuclear power stands at the border between humanity's greatest hope or its greatest fear in the future.
It could be our solution to human's dependence on fossil fuel. This is a cleaner source of energy that could create drastic changes to the pollution of the environment. However, it could also create possibilities of devastation such as the quake-ruptured nuclear power plants in Japan belching out radioactive steam or the Chernobyl's incident in Russia that leaves the city quarantined to this day.
The first nuclear power plants emerged in the 1950s. Now there are 435 commercial nuclear power plants  in 31 countries. As of now, 70 are under construction.

Nuclear power originates from the energy given off when atoms are split. This energy is harvested and used to turn turbine, creating electricity to power human's everyday needs. In 2015, a research was conducted to measure the importance of Nuclear Power. 16 countries depended on nuclear power to generate at least a quarter of their electricity. For example, France produces 1/3 of its electricity using its nuclear power plants. Belgium, Hungary, Slovakia, etc. harvested over 30% of their electricity from nuclear power. This is how important nuclear power is.

No energy source is perfect. However, this is the best solution to our energy problem since nuclear power releases far less greenhouse gasses than do traditional coal and other power plants. These plants have low operating costs with known "ready" technologies on the market. Besides from emitting less CO2, it is capable of generating enough electricity to meet industrial and city needs, unlike solar energy which is only effective in providing power for residential lives but not heavy manufacture.
Though it is cheap to operated, constructing a nuclear power plant is very expensive and the process often take a long time. It is also known to have high risks when an accident happens. In March 2011, ten of thousands of Japanese citizens fled from areas near the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plants when an earthquake hit and overheated the system. Also, nuclear power plants could be used as targets for terrorism due to their high devastating consequences. Similar to fossil fuels, uranium, the main material for nuclear power, is also finite. The known amount of uranium lies under the lands of tribes who are unwilling to allow the removal of uranium from the Earth. In addition, it costs nuclear industries a lot to compensate for potential health contamination and environmental contamination of miners and mines. Lastly, the waste product of nuclear power could last up to 500 thousand years.
Nevertheless, nuclear power has proven to be the best solution to help us detach from the usage of fossil fuels. This temporary source of electricity could buy us some time before new sources of electricity could be found.