Light of the Sun or Fire of Hell: Nuclear Power Is the Destiny of Industrial Civilization

The Fukushima nuclear accident has aroused the world’s attention to the nuclear problem, which is not a problem for a certain country, but a problem that cannot be avoided by all countries that use nuclear energy. Some nuclear experts claim that nuclear power is safe, clean, and necessary, so nuclear energy is the energy of the future. None of these three stand up to scrutiny. First, nuclear power is a scientific technology, from science to technology to engineering, from theory, to design, to operation, the more problems may arise in the later links. The possibility of equipment deterioration and operational errors in long-term operation increases year by year. Absolute safety is impossible, and nuclear power must guarantee absolute safety. Moreover, even if it could be absolutely safe, there are conventional problems, including nuclear radiation to the surrounding environment, nuclear wastewater discharged into the surrounding environment, and nuclear waste that cannot be treated, which constitute an eternal safety problem. Second, nuclear power is not a low-carbon technology, and although nuclear reactions do not release carbon, the construction and operation of nuclear power facilities as a whole need to release more carbon than conventional power generation, so even if the ecological and environmental problems of nuclear waste are not considered, nuclear power is not clean. Third, nuclear power is a civilizational issue. Industrial civilization itself requires more and more energy, and as long as industrial civilization continues, nuclear energy is inevitable. Therefore, to solve the problem of nuclear energy, we need to change the way of life and production built on large amount of energy consumption, change the form of our civilization—from industrial civilization to ecological civilization.