Meeting World Growing Energy Needs the Role of Nuclear Power

The 21st century will face an increased population with limited resources. The latest projection of the United Nations estimates an additional 1.65 billion people by 2030. The rising population should access to all modern services and welfare. Resources demand is expected to increase dramatically in the 21st century, especially in developing countries, where population growth is fast and billions of people nowadays have no access to these services. If no new, strong energy-policy interventions occur, the world’s energy needs will be well over 50% higher in 2030 than today. Fossil fuels will continue to dominate world fuel mix (IEA, International Energy Agency, in World energy outlook 2007, Paris, 2008). The consequent growth in energy-related emissions of carbon-dioxide is noteworthy. The challenge is to reach an energy system allowing this growth and assuring security, reliability, and environmental protection. With worldwide demand for energy expected to more than double by 2030, the need for safe, clean, reliable energy is essential. Much of greenhouse gasses emissions is due to the energy sector. Energy supply, generation and use (and its environmental consequences) is definitely the issue of our times and the coming. All technologies may be complimentary for fitting the demand. Known means exist to cut energy demand and change the fuel mix. In this paper, we will introduce the energy issue and show which role nuclear energy could have in reducing emissions.