The benefits of nuclear technologies

In addition to generating electricity cleanly, nuclear energy offers numerous other benefits. Nuclear or radioactive materials—which have many uses—are produced commercially in nuclear reactors or cyclotrons. Nuclear materials are used for both medical diagnosis and therapy, for example. About 10 million nuclear medicine procedures are carried out in this country every year. For information on the medical uses of nuclear materials, see What is Nuclear Medicine on the Society of Nuclear Medicine's Web site.  For a list of other nuclear medicine organizations, see Radiology Organizations on the Radiological Society of North America's Web site. 

Nuclear materials also are used to kill bacteria, insects and parasites in food—not only in the United States but in many other countries. For details, see Facts about Food Irradiation(PDF) on the International Atomic Energy Agency's Web site, Frequently Asked Questions about Food Irradiation on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Web site, and the Web site of the Foundation for Food Irradiation Education.

Other uses of nuclear materials include agriculture—to preserve seeds and to reduce spoiling of harvested crops, for instance. For more information, see the Special Programme for Food Security on the Web site of the U.N.'s Food and Agricultural Organization. 

You’ll also find details of NASA’s Cassini and Galileo missions powered on NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Web site at JPL Current Missions and information on the RTGs themselves at Galileo Frequently Asked Questions.

Nuclear materials also are used for a wide range of industrial processes—everything from producing coated paper to regulating blast furnaces to checking the structural integrity of bridges to toughening plastics.

For additional information on the world of nuclear technologies, go to the NEI Store, where you’ll find a description of The Untold Story: The Economic Benefits of Nuclear Technologies—Executive Summary. This publication is available free of charge from NEI.

Nuclear Energy Institute—Washington, DC
August 2000