Back to topics

How should we compare the dangers of nuclear power and coal?

A memorable accident and a continuing burden of air pollution are difficult to compare by intuition alone. One approach estimates deaths for the same amount of electricity, including defined stages of the supply chain. The answer still depends on the geography, time period, harms counted, and uncertainty in the estimates.

3–7 min

Questions you could explore

  • What changes when the comparison includes air pollution as well as accidents?
  • Which harms would a deaths-per-electricity measure leave out?

Start reading

Ready to try your ideas aloud?

Your topic carries over. Record up to 2½ minutes, depending on your plan.

How can a heat pump deliver more heat than its electricity input?

Energy4–5 minA heating device seems to promise something impossible when its heat output exceeds the electricity it uses. A heat pump's energy account includes another input: heat moved from its surroundings.

Energy

A solar cell's route from light to electricity

Shining sunlight onto a piece of silicon is only the first step in making solar power. When incoming photons knock electrons loose inside the semiconductor, an internal electric field built into the solar cell's layers must separate those charges and guide them into an external circuit before they simply recombine.

4–5 min

A solar cell's route from light to electricity

Energy4–5 minShining sunlight onto a piece of silicon is only the first step in making solar power. When incoming photons knock electrons loose inside the semiconductor, an internal electric field built into the solar cell's layers must separate those charges and guide them into an external circuit before they simply recombine.

How does a wind turbine turn moving air into electricity?

Energy3–5 minA turbine's blades are only the visible beginning of the journey from wind to electricity. Their rotation drives a generator, though the machinery connecting those parts differs between turbine designs.

How should we compare the dangers of nuclear power and coal? | Speech Topic | speaking.app