Nuclear. It’s a word that immediately causes uneasiness in many people. Looking back to past tragedies involving nuclear weapons and facilities, it makes perfect sense why someone wouldn’t want a reactor powering their town’s grid. However, those tragedies, as terrible as they were, shouldn’t stop society from taking steps to explore nuclear power as a primary, viable power source.

To harness nuclear energy, humans do what they have always done: boil water. The steam from the boiling water is generally used to spin turbines, creating electricity. The same water-boiling method is used when burning fossil fuels. In a nuclear reactor, after spinning through the turbine, the steam is sent to a condenser where some of it gets redirected back into the reactor, and some is released at the top of the cooling tower.

Now, besides being capable of powering quite literally anything that requires electricity, nuclear energy is viable in many places where traditional means of energy production (fossil fuels, solar, wind) is not. This is due to its ability to create a large and consistent amount of energy with minimal waste while only needing water to function.

Nuclear energy is scary for a lot of people, but it shouldn’t be. Nuclear energy is incredibly clean, and by far produces the least amount of waste relative to the power it generates. While often depicted as a bright, neon-green sludge in fiction, radioactive waste is nothing of the sort. In fact, because liquids can easily spill, radioactive waste is almost never disposed of in liquid form.

Radioactive waste is categorized in different levels, with the higher categories being more dangerous. Low level waste refers to anything that’s been radioactively contaminated. Low level cases usually aren’t a problem, and are disposed of once the traces of radioactive material decay. Intermediate cases are more heavily contaminated, and are required to be shielded. High level cases are the worst ones, usually being spent fuel. High level waste is hot and highly radioactive, meaning it must be cooled and heavily shielded.

Some European countries have designated permanent nuclear waste disposal sites. Places where high level nuclear waste is stored underground, away from the public. The United States of America currently does not have a permanent nuclear waste disposal site, but taking into consideration the amount of energy that can be produced with minimal waste, it would be an investment that would pay dividends down the line.

The biggest reason to care about the expansion of nuclear energy infrastructure is for the environment. An enormous amount of energy is produced each day, most of which still comes from fossil fuels. Not only would the switch from fossil fuels to nuclear energy be good for the planet in terms of how much waste is produced, it also serves as a method to keep leaders around the world responsible for their pollution.

As stated earlier, radioactive waste is dangerous, and can be deadly. But this attribute of radioactive waste is one of the things that actually should make it more popular with the general public. That can seem contradictory at first, but when burning fossil fuels, most of the pollution is up in the sky, creating smog. This blocks sunlight and makes the air harder to breathe. That pollution in the air flows all across the world, and yet the polluter isn’t held accountable simply because it’s in the air. Nuclear energy on the other hand produces less waste, its waste is solid and it’s dangerous. This forces nations to properly dispose of it instead of just letting it hang around.

In solving the effects of the direct pollution of fossil fuels, it also makes electric powered technology more eco-friendly. For example, electric cars are created and marketed as a way to reduce the amount of pollution that is created through driving. The current-day problem with this is, electricity is mostly created through the burning of fossil fuels. So, while driving an electric car is certainly better for the environment than driving a traditional gas car, its effects on the environment are largely overstated due to the fact that fossil fuels are being burned either way. This is the case with most electric alternatives to gas powered machines and it simply is not enough. Investing in a cleaner future now is the only way we can guarantee a clean present. The best way to do that is through the expansion of nuclear energy.