Resolved: The United States should Significantly Increase its Use of Nuclear Energy

First I will Go to my opponents case and if space alots I will rebuild my own case First looking to his Contention one and that nuclear plants do not emit carbn dioxide......... This can be blocked in two seperate ways 1st the actual nuclear cycle itself and 2nd how can nuclear energy be efficient....... first to nuclear cycle M V Ramana, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment and Development,reports on July 1st 2005 that In reality several steps in he nuclear fuel cycle, from Uranium mining to enrichment to reprocessing emit copious amounts of greenhouse gases. What we see is not only are carbon emissions released from nuclear energy but during the early steps to even begin to create nuclear energy release many more emissions. As America Magazine, of June 23, 2008 finds Reactors are only part of the nine-stage nuclear fuel cycle. This cycle includes mining uranium ore, milling it to extract uranium, converting the uranium to gas, enriching it, fabricating fuel pellets, generating power, reprocessing spent fuel, storing spent fuel at the reactor and transporting the waste to a permanent storage facility. Because most of these nine stages are heavily dependent on fossil fuels, nuclear power thus generates at least 33 grams of carbon- equivalent emissions for each kilowatt-hour of electricity that is produced. and as the Oxford Research group finds that because of this if we were to increase are amount of nuclear energy we would have the same amount of CO2 emissions by 2050, So nuclear energy is just going to cause the same problem in 42 years, what we need to look at is other alternatives which are more cost effective and can meet demand Which leads to the efficiancy First we look to the uranium shortage....Dr Youngson cautions that it is too soon to tell how significant this nuclear resurgence will be in the longer run, but the surge in the price of uranium in recent years suggests that demand is likely to continue to outstrip supply. The price of uranium increased by more than 1,000 per cent from 2002 to 2007, driven by a perception of tight supply and market speculation. Ambrian's research shows that uranium supply from mining has consistently failed to meet demand since the early 1990s, one of the main reasons being the very long lead times of developing uranium mines. also we look to the demand In addition to being risky, nuclear power is unable to meet our current or future energy needs. as Kristin Ferchette at the university of Notre Dame finds: Because of safety requirements and the length of time it takes to construct a nuclear-power facility, the government says that by the year 2050 atomic energy could supply, at best, 20 percent of U.S. electricity needs; yet by 2020, wind and solar panels could supply at least 32 percent of U.S. electricity, at about half the cost of nuclear power. To Rebuilding: Attack C2 SA) What we need to do is first find a way to store this before we can possibly increase nuclear energy my opponent must show you where we can store this waste before we can even think about increasing nuclear energy SB) In Belarus 2000 kids had to have there thyroids removed due to the noble gases in the air as Dr. Helen Caldicott finds and we look back to my C2 we see that these can lead to genetic diseases, simply the risk is too high SC) Cooling twoers are used across the world, the technology aobviously isnt there, these cooling systems are a problem and need to be fixed, and simply we cant just kill fish now to save them later supposidly C3) The US has not significantly increased nuclear energy, we have to look to foreign examples to see what can possibly happen, and obviously cooling towers cant solve the problem, otherwise nuclear reactors would not be taken offline And Lastly to C4) Jobs is utterly flawed Because no new nuclear power plants have been built in the United States in over 30 years, foreign companies have more experience building such plants. while considering constructing a new nuclear reactor, the American utility Constellation partnered with the French-German company, Areva, to build a model plant in Finland. The United States must produce more electricity to keep up with increasing demand, but relying on foreign companies to build nuclear plants means fewer jobs for Americans in the energy sector. Lastly I would like to bring up a C5) that i have lightly touched on also in minor rebuttal to C4) Wind and Solar are a much better option and safer Jim Harding, former director of power planning and forecasting for Seattle City Light, estimates that nuclear plants constructed today would provide electricity at between 12 and 17 cents per kilowatt-hour. To put this cost into perspective, the average U.S. electricity price in 2006 was 8.9 cents per kWh, and well-placed wind turbines can produce electricity @ less then 5 cents per kilowatt hour and solar at abou 11 cents per kilowatt hour GoodLuck Opponent