This was humanity's first introduction

to nuclear power, the atomic bomb.

- And this is a nuclear power plant,

which you may know from all the times

that they've broken down in history

and scared the crap out of people.

Hello, HBO's Chernobyl.

- But you've actually been lied to about nuclear energy.

And in order to understand those lies,

we first have to talk about where the energy comes from.

- In 1938, scientists discovered nuclear fission.

They did this by slamming an atom of uranium with a neutron.

It would divide into two

and release a large amount of energy.

Not only this, but during the nuclear fission reaction

up to three neutrons are ejected,

which can trigger further fission reactions of more atoms,

meaning more energy is released.

This is known as a chain reaction.

- During World War II,

America would use the same technology

to create the first atomic bomb.

But it wasn't until 1955 that the same scientific principles

were used to create the first nuclear power plant

that generated electricity.

- In the 1970s, psychologists started to map

people's anxieties about nuclear destruction

and the past cold war, onto nuclear power plants,

which were now cropping up around the world.

Then came the 1979 thriller, The China Syndrome,

a movie about a fictional nuclear reactor meltdown.

Which was released on March 6th, 1979.

And just 22 days later,

a real partial nuclear reactor meltdown

happened at Three Mile Island.

Talk about free advertisement for your movie.

The coincidence of a Hollywood film

and this cultural nuclear reactor breakdown

coming together really shot into the mainstream

this negative connotation with nuclear energy.

From the release of this movie to 1988,

67 planned nuclear power plants were canceled.

In 1986 Chernobyl happened, which was caused by human error.

As the temperature of the reactor core became too high

and an explosion created a nuclear cloud across Europe.

I scream cried while watching Chernobyl.

I remember thinking to myself, okay,

is nuclear energy a truly invisible horror?

Right after that, in 1989, we got The Simpsons

where we see people diving into nuclear waste.

And our favorite idiot, Homer,

who we all picture as a safety inspector

at a nuclear reactor.

As recent as 2011, we have the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

And all of this combined made it really hard

to not be afraid of nuclear energy.

- But when you look more into it, you find that

no one died at Three Mile Island.

And most epidemiological studies found

that it had no detectable health consequences.

After 30 years, only 51 people died from

the incident at Chernobyl.

And scientific studies found few health risks

connected to radiation exposure after Fukushima.

- Take this recent In a Nutshell video

linked in the description.

It shows how using coal, oil, natural gas,

and biomass has killed 100 million people

in the past 50 years.

This was due to pollution created by

the byproducts of burning fossil fuels.

- The World Health Organization explains

that it's safer to work in a nuclear power plant

than in a big city office,

as the urban air pollution of ozone, sulfur dioxide,

carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide

causes 7 million deaths annually

- Only 0.005% of the average American's

yearly radiation dose comes from nuclear power.

This is 200 times less than a cross country flight,

a hundred times less than what we get from coal,

and about the same as eating one banana per year?

Wait, so if I'm scared of nuclear energy

I also have to be scared of a banana?

But like peanut butter and bananas on toast is my culture.

Also being gay, I hate holding bananas like this

'cause it just reminds me of getting bullied.

- [Host] There's also this study, showing that a CT scan

of the abdomen involves about 10 times

the radiation exposure that the average

nuclear worker gets in a year

- Or that living in a big polluted city

increases your mortality risk by 2.8 times

that of a Chernobyl cleanup worker.

So what is happening?

Is nuclear energy dangerous or safe?

- But just before we get to that,

we wanna thank today's sponsor Skillshare.

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Skillshare's actually how I improved

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Now let's get back to the core of this video,

about the nuclear reactor's core.

These reactors use low enriched uranium

and controlled chain reactions to heat pressurized water,

which in turn heats other water in a secondary circuit

that causes steam to rotate a turbine,

which is linked to a generator that creates electricity.

Cool water from a river or ocean can be pumped in

to cool the water in the secondary circuit.

Or, sometimes cooling towers are built.

Like these iconic bad boys

that we all know and love from The Simpsons.

- Current research has found that American opinions

haven't changed much on nuclear energy since the cold war,

which is weird because it feels like culture has shifted.

Kids no longer learn to hide under their desks

in preparation for nuclear war.

Now they learned to hide under their desks

for preparation of a mass shooter.

In fact, 54% of Americans still oppose nuclear energy today.

So let's talk nuclear power plant safety.

A Harvard study found that newer generations

of nuclear reactors, particularly what is called

pebble-bed reactors, are designed so that

the nuclear chain reaction cannot run away

and cause a meltdown.

Even in the event of a complete failure

of the reactor's machinery.

And that with the advent of modern reactors,

such as the pebble-bed reactor,

and careful selection of plant sites,

nuclear accidents like the one in Fukushima

are actually not possible.

But some people think that emphasizing safety

actually just emphasizes fear.

Airlines don't advertise how safe they are

because then you would just be thinking about

crashing the whole time you were on the plane.

And the fact that you need to look

next to the stranger beside you and be like,

I love you, I'm sorry, goodbye.

While you're screaming, and the plane's shaking,

and you have to cover your head,

and apparently your legs break on impact.

- So maybe nuclear energy should use the airline's approach

and stop explaining why they're safe,

and start unapologetically explaining how great they are.

Nuclear reactors, such as Diablo Canyon,

which will be closed in 2024 due to cost upkeep,

accounts for roughly 9% of California's energy

but occupies fewer than 600 acres.

Honestly, that's wowsers to think of that much energy

coming out of that little Diablo Canyon.

There are currently 56 nuclear power plants

operating in the US that provide the country

with roughly 20% of the electrical supply.

That's more than half of the US's low carbon electricity.

The NASA Goddard Institute predicts that

nuclear power has prevented 1.84 million deaths

that would have occurred if the energy

was produced by fossil fuels.

This is 370 times more lives saved

than have been lost to any nuclear power plant issues

in the last 40 years.

At this point, I feel very lied to.

But, what about the nuclear waste?

- 97% of the waste created by nuclear plants

is classified as low or intermediate level waste.

All the nuclear waste in the US is often compared to

the size of a football field piled 50 feet high.

The world nuclear association describes that

the waste is encapsulated in highly engineered casks,

in stable vitrified form, and is placed at depths

well below the biosphere.

Such long-term geological storage solutions

are designed to prevent any movement

of radioactivity for thousands of years.

So even in the event of an earthquake or a natural disaster

these repositories will keep the waste

from reaching the surface and releasing radiation.

In addition, 96% of this waste can be recycled

to make new fuel and byproducts.

- So the nuclear power industry

puts their waste in monitored concrete casks,

deep into the ground, but the coal, oil,

and natural gas industries release their waste

into the atmosphere.

Where it causes pollution

and kills thousands of people a year,

and like all the birds.

And these greenhouse gases contribute to

the sixth largest mass extinction that we are currently in,

and to the climate crisis that we are currently in.

So is it safe?

Well, nuclear energy is definitely safer

than the fossil fuels that we are addicted to right now.

- The fear of nuclear energy is getting in the way

of us having an honest discussion of how it can work

with renewable energy to get us to a zero carbon future.

As stated, the US gets 20% of its electricity

from nuclear power plants.

France gets 70% from nuclear.

Impressive research at MIT analyzed 1,000 scenarios

of getting to our zero carbon future.

And all the cheapest paths involved nuclear

helping renewable energy, get to where it needs to be.

- Focusing in on America,

there is a scenario where you can get to

a zero carbon future with just renewables

and leaving the existing nuclear power plants on.

But this is specific to America

because America is rich in renewable energy opportunities.

It's got the windy Texas, the super sunny California.

Many other parts of the world do not have the ability

to rely on renewable energy in this way.

It's for this reason that the UK has put nuclear

front and center for how it's gonna get to

zero carbon emissions, 'cause they can't really