Energy Security Needs Nuclear

Few understand better than physicians the need for reliable energy.

Energy security – the availability of stable, reliable power – is intimately linked to health security. Modern medicine relies on electricity at every turn: hospitals need power for operating room lights and surgical tools, for ventilators and life-support machines in the ICU, for imaging devices like X-ray, MRI and CT scanners, for laboratory diagnostics (from basic blood tests to advanced genetic sequencing), for refrigeration of vaccines and blood, and even for basic necessities like clean water and heating/cooling in wards.

When the power goes out, patient care is immediately at risk. In critical care units, even a momentary outage can be life-threatening if backup systems fail. Tragically, there have been instances illustrating this danger. In 2016 at a hospital in Hyderabad, India, a grid power failure and generator malfunctions plunged the facility into darkness; within hours, 21 patients had died due to the loss of support systems in intensive care units and emergency wards. This grim incident underscores that electricity is as essential as any medicine in a hospital – without power, even the best doctors and nurses are gravely limited in what they can do.

Reliable energy saves lives just as surely as antibiotics or surgical skill. The WHO has highlighted that “electricity access in health-care facilities can make the difference between life and death” for exactly this reason. It’s not just major hospitals; small rural clinics also need power for lights to deliver babies at night and to keep antivenoms or oxytocin stable in the fridge. Yet today, shockingly, close to 1 billion people are served by health facilities with no electricity or an unreliable supply – mostly in developing regions. Doctors in these areas often struggle with intermittent power for sterilizing equipment or have to cancel procedures until electricity is restored. Some clinics rely on diesel generators that are expensive to run and can themselves fail or run out of fuel. This energy insecurity directly correlates with poorer health outcomes: imagine an operating theater going dark mid-surgery or vaccines spoiling during storage. Therefore, achieving energy security is a foundation for resilient healthcare systems.

"Electricity access in health-care facilities can make the difference between life and death." — Dr. Maria Neira, World Health Organization

Nuclear energy can play a major role in strengthening energy security because it provides dependable baseload power with minimal fuel supply risk. A nuclear plant is designed to run continuously for 18–24 months between refueling outages, and its fuel (a small volume of uranium) is typically stored on-site with backups, insulating it from short-term supply disruptions. This makes nuclear facilities remarkably resilient in the face of fuel market volatility or transportation bottlenecks that can affect fossil fuels. In contrast, gas-fired plants depend on just-in-time fuel delivery via pipelines (vulnerable to geopolitical tensions or disasters), and coal plants need steady coal shipments. By having a portion of electricity come from nuclear, a country ensures that a chunk of its grid is always on, regardless of weather or global fuel prices.

For instance, France during its nuclear heyday enjoyed not only low-carbon power but also a high degree of energy independence – its reactors provided consistent power such that even during oil crises or gas supply scares, hospitals and industries in France kept humming reliably. The reliability metrics of nuclear power are exemplary: as noted, U.S. nuclear plants have capacity factors around 92%, meaning they’re producing maximum power almost all year. This reliability directly benefits health services. A stable grid means hospitals rarely need to switch to emergency generators (which sometimes fail or are insufficient). It means cities are less likely to experience blackouts during heat waves (when the demand for air conditioning soars and heatstroke cases can overwhelm ERs) or cold snaps. In a very real sense, energy reliability is health reliability – when the lights stay on, so do ventilators in ICUs and so do vaccine freezers in pharmacies.

Conversely, energy outages and instability can devastate healthcare delivery. We’ve seen how extreme weather events, likely worsened by climate change, can knock out power and thereby cripple medical services. After Hurricane Maria in 2017, Puerto Rico’s electric grid collapsed for weeks in many areas; hospitals had to operate on generator power for prolonged periods, some dialysis clinics shut down, and the interruption of medical care contributed to a significant spike in mortality. Studies of such events find increases in hospitalizations and deaths for conditions like renal failure and respiratory illness during extended outages. In South Africa, ongoing rolling blackouts (“load shedding”) have seriously impacted hospitals – surgeries are postponed because autoclaves can’t sterilize instruments without power, and doctors report that frequent outages pose a major threat to patient safety (86% of South African doctors in one survey said load shedding endangered patients).

These examples make it clear that an unreliable grid costs lives. Nuclear power, by contributing large volumes of steady power, can reduce such occurrences. It also adds inertia and stability to the grid, which can prevent smaller outages from cascading. During the winter of 2021 in Texas, a grid crisis caused by extreme cold led to blackouts that affected hospitals and water treatment; while Texas has no nuclear plants in its main grid, one can speculate that a larger base of always-on generation could have mitigated the shortfall.

Countries that lack reliable power often struggle to maintain even basic health services. The disparity can be stark: in sub-Saharan Africa, half of health facilities have unreliable electricity, and more than 1 in 10 have no power at all. This contributes to higher maternal mortality (imagine a clinic trying to function at night during childbirth with only flashlights) and hamstrings efforts to combat diseases (refrigeration for vaccines or lab tests for epidemics). It’s telling that global health agencies now run programs specifically to electrify clinics, recognizing that without power, other health interventions can fail. By building nuclear plants, nations can ensure a secure domestic energy supply that is less subject to external shocks – this is especially relevant for countries that otherwise import most of their energy. Energy independence through nuclear means, for instance, not being at the mercy of gas pipeline cut-offs or fuel embargoes that could imperil hospital power.

Finally, we should note that energy security in the face of climate change also protects health. As we shift to low-carbon grids, we must ensure the new systems are robust. An energy grid dominated by intermittent sources without sufficient storage or backup could be unstable – and if a green grid fails frequently, the public (and hospitals) suffer. Nuclear energy offers a way to maintain a high-reliability, clean grid. It pairs well with renewables: nuclear can handle the heavy lifting of baseline demand, while solar and wind fill in as available, and together they minimize the need for any fossil backup. This avoids having to build two parallel sets of infrastructure (one for clean power, one for standby fossil power) and reduces the chance of blackouts when renewable output dips. The result is a sustainable grid that doctors and citizens alike can count on. Health outcomes improve not just from the cleaner air and cooler climate, but from the sheer consistency of electrical service enabling high-quality medical care at all times.

Nuclear energy bolsters energy security, which in turn is a pillar of health security. By providing reliable, clean power, nuclear ensures that the electricity vital for medical services is always available. It prevents the preventable tragedies that occur when lights go out and machines stop in healthcare facilities. In a larger sense, a society with secure energy can devote more resources to advancing healthcare rather than scrambling to keep the power on.

Energy security enabled by nuclear power is, quite literally, the power to heal – a steady heartbeat for the health system that never skips a beat.