Dear Honorable Michael F. Doyle, Congressman of Pennsylvania’s 14th District,

I am writing to you as a concerned citizen of the fine state of Pennsylvania. It has come to my attention, as well as many people in the field of nuclear engineering, that our current ways of creating electricity are inadequate and must change. Our heavy usage of petroleum has become a problem to both the environment and the economy. A change to nuclear power appears to be the best alternative to our current situation. With vast technological advances and heavy research the nuclear industry is the clear choice as our future power source.

Nuclear energy is an innovative industry that creates electricity through the process of nuclear fission. Nuclear fission is a scientific procedure that creates thermal energy from the transformation of the fuel’s composition. First, a fissile isotope is held in a closed system with water running through it. To start the energy creation, a neutron is shot into the fuel matrix so that it causes another neutron to be released as well as a certain level of energy. The second neutron hits another atom and the process becomes a chain reaction steadily giving off thermal heat, which is taken in by the water. The water is heated into steam before going into the turbine. This thermal energy of the water causes the turbine to power a generator and convert the mechanical energy of the turbine’s motion into electricity that is sent out to the public.

Safety is a huge concern whenever nuclear power is mentioned anywhere, and this is very true for a couple of reasons. For people not involved in the nuclear industry, safety is brought up in a bad way, with regards to the Chernobyl accident, or maybe the Three Mile Island accident. Despite Chernobyl being a horrific tragedy, this was due mostly in part to the Russians inadequate reactor design as well as the fact that the operators blew up the plant. This accident is over 20 years old and much has changed in the industry since then. Global restrictions and laws have increased greatly so that an accident like that is highly unlikely. Pennsylvania’s current leading source of energy, coal, is not nearly as safe as nuclear power. A figure that might shock you is that “more than 5,000 coal-mining deaths occur worldwide every year” (Moore 1). The other reason that safety is brought up in the nuclear business so often, is because of how much time and energy is put into keeping the safety standards so high. For any given reactor design, it must be in accordance with thousands and thousands of restrictions, thus leaving you with only the highest of safety in terms of reactor designs. All nuclear power plants have a five-shell system of safety that ensures foolproof safety. It starts with the “fuel matrix, which retains most of the fission products”, then, “cladding which surrounds the fuel pellets”, which is all in a “leak tight coolant system”, inside of a “leak tight containment building”, lastly with a large distance from the population (Hochreiter 8,9). A surprising fact is that “eighty percent of the people living within 10 miles of these plants approve of them (that's not including the nuclear workers)” (Moore 1).

The benefits of nuclear power are endless and come in many different forms. Its environmental benefits include the production of electricity without the release of greenhouse gases such as CO2. Also, the mining for nuclear fuel is nearly negligible in comparison to the mining of coal and petroleum so less of Earth is destroyed from mining. The fuel used in fission is usually Uranium, which is quite abundant throughout the world, while fossil fuels on the other hand, such as coal and petroleum, are running thin and are nearly depleted. Despite popular belief, nuclear energy has many economical benefits too. A conversion to fission power will result in a large decrease in foreign dependence on oil. This will, in turn, lower our importing demands and cut the trade deficit. Also, nuclear energy is the cheapest source of electricity available as seen in the fact that, “the average cost of power generation by nuclear plants was 1.83 cents per kilowatt-hour, for coal-fired plants 2.07 cents, for oil 3.24 cents, and for gas 3.52 cents” (NS&T).

If we continue to use coal and petroleum as our main sources of energy, they are certain to run out in the very near future because even, “the most optimistic estimates have fossil fuel lasting no more than 100 years; however, they may become economically undesirable in much less time” (NS&T). Also, our current sources of energy are constantly destroying the Earth. “According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, U.S. nuclear power plants prevent 5.1 million tons of sulfur dioxide, 2.4 million tons of nitrogen oxide, and 164 million metric tons of carbon from entering the earth's atmosphere each year” (NS&T). These numbers will continue to rise as we phase out our traditional methods of creating electricity with nuclear power. Saving the atmosphere is crucial for many reasons, ranging from stopping global warming, which is a disaster in itself, to preventing holes in the ozone layer so we are not subject to harmful UV rays that cause cancer.

From great research, I have found that it is crucial for Pennsylvania, as well as the whole world, to begin a conversion to nuclear power from our current sources of oil, coal, and natural gas. I find it difficult to convey the urgency of this problem, because this change will take time, and time is running short. The construction of hundreds of civilian nuclear reactors can take years and years, meanwhile our fossil fuels are nearly gone; there are no more than 100 years left with them (but a more realistic number is about 40 years because of our massive reliance on these energy sources). While other methods of harvesting energy are adequate in terms of fossil fuel preservation, none can compare with how much energy is provided through nuclear power at such a reasonable price. It is with great faith that I leave you with the final decision, but I hope I have opened your eyes more to this imperative problem.
Sincerely,
Frank M. Nedwidek
Penn State Nuclear Engineering 2009
Citizen of Pennsylvania’s 14th District

Works Cited
"Electricity." __NS&T__. 14 Mar. 2006 <http://www.aboutnuclear.org/view.cgi?fC=Electricity,Benefits_^_Effects>.
Hochreiter, Dr. L. E. Lecture. Breazeale Nuclear Reactor, State College. 28 Feb. 2006. 13 Mar. 2006 <https://cms.psu.edu/section/default.asp?WCU=CRSCNT&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;id=200506SPUP+++RNUC+E001S001>.
Moore, Patrick. "Going Nuclear." Washington Post 16 Apr. 2006. 16 Apr. 2006 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/14/AR2006041401209.html>.

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