Water

• The conservation of water has been a major part of the overall environmental effort as all forms of life rely heavily on it. Both the generation of nuclear power and the mining of the raw materials used in its production use large amounts of water. The water used in reactors for cooling cannot be reused -- it has been irradiated -- and much of the water used in mining goes to waste. Although water cooling has become a lot more efficient in nuclear plants, it has not been improved enough to dispel the objections of environmental groups.
  
  

Plutonium and Uranium Mining

• All forms of mining pollute to some degree, but nuclear material causes its own problems. First, there is the potential for vast deforestation, depending on where the material is, but this is a problem in all mining be it for plutonium, coal or gold. The main problem in mining for fissile materials is that it requires the use of harsh chemicals to extract the material from the rock. The use of these chemicals and the extraction process itself leads to the production of radioactive radon, which makes the mining itself more difficult and the area around the mine uninhabitable.
  
  

Land

• Building mines for nuclear material, as well as the building of the plants themselves, take up a large amount of space and mean little can be built in the near vicinity. This is land that could be conserved for animals or used to build alternative energy plants for wind or solar power. Due to both environmental and safety concerns with nuclear power many feel there are better uses for land than the construction of new nuclear plants.
  
  

Carbon Fuels

• It is important to remember that all of these issues are also problems for carbon-based fuels such as coal, oil and gas, as all of these require the building of mines and power plants that destroy ecosystems, produce pollution and use large amounts of water. Nuclear power, however, is carbon emissions-free, which can potentially reduce dependency on foreign oil and counteract global warming.
  
  

Nuclear Waste

• What to do with the nuclear waste is the key issue when disusing nuclear power. This toxic waste needs to be disposed of safely and kept secure for hundreds of years due to its long radioactive half life. Simply burying the waste is controversial, as nobody wants it buried near them because it has a detrimental effect on the area in which it is buried in terms of plant and animal life.