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How Does Nuclear Energy Affect The Economy

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How Does Nuclear Energy Affect The Economy
Nuclear energy has a significant role in the economy. The nuclear energy industry leads to job creation and economic growth. 400 to 700 permanent jobs are required by the operation of one nuclear power plant (Nuclear Energy Institute, 2014). There are more than 63,000 highly skilled workers involved in the civil nuclear industry throughout the UK. In addition, there over 80,000 jobs linked to the industry directly or indirectly (Nuclear Industry Association, n.d.). Nevertheless, a large amount of money will be invested due to the expanding of nuclear energy. For example, experts have forecasted that approximately 1180 billion of pound will be invested in building new nuclear reactors and decommissioning those coming off line over the next 20 years (Nuclear Industry Association, n.d.). …show more content…
However, several disastrous nuclear incidents which had occurred in the past had caused a significant impact on the economic. For instance, the economy of Japan was undermined by the tragic Fukushima Daiichi power plant incident. A huge amount of money was required in order to handle the aftermath of the incident. The expenses of cleaning up the nuclear radiation and decontaminating the crippled nuclear plant were $23 billion and $48billion, respectively. Further to this, $47 billion was paid to the residents in the affected area of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant as a compensation (RT News, 2014). This indicates that the disaster had caused a loss of more that $100 billion. Nonetheless, most of the nuclear disasters can be prevented. For example, the operating company (TEPCO) of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants has stated that the Fukushima disaster could have been avoided if safety improvements were implemented (McCurry,

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