The Ethics of Nuclear Energy

If war is much too serious a thing to be left to the military (Georges Clemenceau) ethics is much too important to be left to the professional ethicists. They are good at pontificating on general principles but poor at applying them to practical situations in a manner that would help the public. Some critics of nuclear energy, exploiting the vacuum, claim that the use of nuclear energy is unethical. As a result, there is a widely held view among the public that its use may be necessary but undesirable.

My position has been presented in the sources listed below, all in the public domain. Since several are not readily available links to them are given. In these I give reasons for believing that nuclear energy is ethical and I argue that much of the critics’ reasoning is faulty, based on a misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the facts. The conclusions are that the use of nuclear energy, under proper regulatory control, is ethical for many applications, and that to ignore its potential for clean, affordable energy in an energy-hungry world would be unethical.