An Examination of the Ethical Dilemmas in Nuclear Energy Production

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the ethical issues surrounding nuclear energy. It begins with an executive summary highlighting the global concern over climate change and the potential of nuclear energy as an alternative, while also acknowledging the associated ethical dilemmas. The report then delves into the environmental impacts, including the generation of radioactive waste and the consequences of nuclear accidents like Chernobyl and Fukushima, which have significant public health and environmental ramifications. The report further examines the impacts on local residents, fact disclosure, and safety regulations. The analysis includes an ethical analysis of the issues, proposing changes to improve safety standards and transparency. It emphasizes adherence to ethical principles such as nonmaleficence, utilitarianism, disclosure, justice, beneficence, and autonomy, and concludes with recommendations for enhancing safety, ensuring accurate information dissemination, and fostering international cooperation to mitigate risks associated with nuclear energy.

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ETHICAL ISSUES IN NUCLEAR ENERGY
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Executive summary
Currently, one of the major issues, which have attracted a global attention, is climate change.
The issue of climate change has been sparked by the increased levels of carbon release into the
atmosphere, which have threatened both the living and non-living things. Further, this has
resulted into a depletion of the fossil fuels, as they are the major sources of energy. It is in this
retrospect that a solution is brought fourth, which is the adoption of nuclear energy. However,
there are a number of ethical issues surrounding nuclear energy, and unless they are addressed,
the technique will remain detrimental to human and the general environment. This report
therefore attempts to look into the ethical issues posed by the nuclear energy as well as putting
forward some viable recommendations to ensure it is sustainable.

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Table of Contents
Executive summary.....................................................................................................................................2
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Ethical issues in nuclear energy...................................................................................................................4
Impact on the environment......................................................................................................................4
Nuclear accidents.....................................................................................................................................5
Impacts on the local residents..................................................................................................................5
Fact disclosure.........................................................................................................................................6
Safety regulations and violations.............................................................................................................6
Ethical analysis and proposal for change.....................................................................................................7
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................8
References...................................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
A strong debate has resulted after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in Japan whose
outcome significantly influenced a number of sectors not limited to the environment, public
health, psychological effects as well as food safety. The debate has majorly focused on the
ethical issues surrounding the safety of nuclear energy and deploy-ability, as an alternative to
addressing the current crisis - climate change and reduction of the various sources of fossil
energy. From the principles, nuclear energy adopts sustained nuclear fusion in order to generate
heat, which then is converted into other forms of energy such as electrical energy (Becker, 2011).
Statistically, the world is supplied by 15% in terms of electricity from nuclear energy and 6% on
the aspect of general energy (Xiang and Zhu, 2011). Hence, in this report, a critical investigation
is presented as of the ethical issues, which are associated with nuclear energy.
Ethical issues in nuclear energy
There are a number of factors, which are considered whenever a discussion on the ethical issues
of nuclear energy is brought up. These issues majorly look into a comparison between the
limitations as well as the benefits of nuclear energy. The factors include; the impacts of the
environment, the extent of associated accidents, the impacts on the local residents, as well as the
safety regulations. The section below provides a detailed look into the aforementioned aspects.
Impact on the environment
There are both the limitations as well as benefits of nuclear energy towards the environment. For
instance, looking at the pros, nuclear energy is sustainable, such that it does not result into the
emission of greenhouse gases and in overall generates little amount of energy as compared to
other conventional means such as coal and thermal energy. This implies that it has great potential
in addressing the increased demand for energy, amidst diminishing levels of fossil energy. On
the contrary, nuclear energy is not absolutely green. This is because it entails the refining as well

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as mining of radioactive raw materials, which are then disposed and poses great harm to both the
residents as well as the environment (Danzer, A.M. and Danzer, 2016).
Nuclear accidents
From the present data, a number of accidents related to nuclear energy have been registered
worldwide. Some of these accidents include; Three miles accident, Kyshtym accident,
Fukushima disaster as well as the Chernobyl disaster. Whenever these accidents take place, huge
amounts of radioactive materials are emitted into the atmosphere as well as gas (Greenpeace,
2016). For instance, the Chernobyl accident resulted in huge amounts of gas spreading across
Europe.
These emitted gas and radioactive materials have long term and short terms effects on
biodiversity. For instance, human health is affected, the plants and animal life is as well put at
risk. The long-term effects are that diseases such as cancer and deaths are inevitable in such
occasions. A report by the world health organization did estimate that the Chernobyl accident
would result in an excess of 9000 deaths from cancer. For the Fukushima accident, it resulted in
a cascade of crisis across such as food safety, environment, public health, as well as
psychological effects across (Greenpeace, 2016).
Impacts on the local residents
From the past studies and literature, nuclear energy entails the mining, processing, transportation
as well as disposal of radioactive materials in areas which are deemed remote. The residents who
live near the areas of disposal as well as close to the roads, which are used during the
transportation of the radioactive materials, are at risk of being infected, with diseases such as
cancer, as well as other health problems. This is totally contrary to the principles of justice and
nonmaleficence. However, after the termination of the yucca mountain nuclear waste repository,

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most of the nuclear power plants are temporarily storing nuclear waste on-site, which as well
puts the health of those living around on jeopardy (Becker, 2011).
Fact disclosure
When there is full disclosure of information to the public, on how the menace can be handled, in
terms of the potential risks, how to eliminate the related injuries, as well as training on the
methods of handling, can be of significance towards reducing the public panic and anxiety.
However, the governments in most cases downplay the risk and deny the public from having the
facts. Fukushima disaster serves as the best case study, as the Tokyo electric power company did
publish false data hence covering up most of the risks. The information, which was released by
the Japanese government, were contradicting and these escalated the psychological effects
across. On the contrary, it would be ethical to give accurate information to the public in order to
ease the pressure that comes along the detrimental effects of nuclear energy(Greenpeace, 2016).
Safety regulations and violations
In a number of the nuclear power stations, the proper regulations and safety measures have not
been adhered to. Taking the Fukushima still as an example, they did admit to having falsified the
data on the various periodic safety checks in an attempt to cover up for the cause of the accident.
This is the case with most of the nuclear power stations, giving falsified information and thus
violating the safety regulations associated with the set-up of nuclear energy power plants
(Becker, 2011). As a matter of implication, the safety and regulations of the nuclear power plants
should be regarded as the highest priority and prosecution of the violators should not be a matter
of question. Currently, there are 439 nuclear reactors worldwide, and measures should be
adopted not only during the set-up of the power plants but as well to protect and continue
improving the safety of the plants in cases of natural disasters (Greenpeace, 2016).

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Ethical analysis and proposal for change
To resolve the underlying issues in nuclear energy production, the various nuclear power plants
and industries needs to adhere to the ethical principles and values to maximize the benefits as
well as limiting the associated harms. Nonetheless, the different stakeholder may hold divergent
views, in accordance with the different principles, values, and information which they believe in
relation to nuclear energy. In addition, technological advancements have a major impact on the
critical issues related to nuclear energy (Becker, 2011).
Taking the western world as an instance, utilitarianism is the dominant theory, which puts
priority to the well ben of most individuals. Assuming that this theory is applied to the key issues
surrounding nuclear energy, some of the key questions that will come up include; has the nuclear
energy program maximize the well-being of the people? Most of the nuclear energy proponents
including most government will contend to the idea of nuclear energy is sustainable, and thus
brushing over the potentially harmful effects
The opponents such as IPPNW and greenspace, however, will pose question towards whether
nuclear energy is actually green. Irrespective of the lack of emission of the greenhouse gases by
the technique, it is evident that the radioactive materials, which are being emitted, are harmful on
a large scale. Hence the need to improve the safety and methods of the handling of the wastes.
With regards to the various ethical principles such as nonmaleficence, utilitarianism, disclosure,
justice, beneficence and autonomy, some of the recommendations put forward includes;
Improve the safety standard of nuclear energy so as to minimize the environmental harms and
public health, through the implementation of various review measures and safety checks to the
nuclear plants; enforcing full safety compliance towards nuclear plants regulations and taking
appropriate measures towards the lawbreakers; ensure sharing of accurate information to the
public so as to limit the associated anxiety on the effects of nuclear energy; enhancing the

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international cooperation between various sectors and industries on various strategies to improve
the nuclear energy; as well as the integration of psychological and Medicare support for the
populations which are at high risk before or after the occurrence of nuclear accidents (Becker,
2011).
These recommendations when stringently implemented by the relevant bodies and governments,
it is absolute that the risks will be minimized and hence increasing the benefits. The healthcare as
well plays a great role in guiding the public on ways of responding to the various levels of
exposure and reducing the public anxiety emanating from the radioactive effects.
Conclusion
This paper delves into the various issues which are associated with nuclear energy. Whereas
nuclear energy is deemed to be sustainable as it is not associated with the emission of greenhouse
gases, it results in irreversible damage to the public health as well as environment. The effects
are short terms either such as deaths or temporary injuries or at times long times resulting into
cases of deaths resulting from cancer. With regards to the various ethical principals of
nonmaleficence, utilitarianism, disclosure, justice, beneficence and autonomy, the government,
as well as relevant authorities, need to put up stringent measures aimed at enhancing the nuclear
safety, as well as the management of the associated risks.

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References
Becker, S.M., 2011. Protecting public health after major radiation emergencies.
Xiang, H. and Zhu, Y., 2011. The ethics issues of nuclear energy: hard lessons learned from
Chernobyl and Fukushima. Online Journal of Health Ethics, 7(2), p.6. bec
Greenpeace, C., 2016. Health Effects of Chernobyl and Fukushima: 30 and 5 years down the
line.
Danzer, A.M. and Danzer, N., 2016. The long-run consequences of Chernobyl: Evidence on
subjective well-being, mental health and welfare. Journal of Public Economics, 135, pp.47-60.