The benefits of nuclear energy are related to its potential to replace fossil fuels, reduce carbon emissions and hence control climate change, and the potential increase of scientific and industrial progress deriving from an intellectually and technologically intense activity, together with the social and economic development of the societies affected.

As discussed in the previous section, the whole world benefits from the substitution of oil and gas by nuclear power for the generation of electricity, as a result of the corresponding decrease in the emission of greenhouse gases, and by the increase in commercial activities and technology inter­changes between nations. Similarly, the whole of a country benefits from the increased reliability and potential lower costs of electricity, and local and regional populations benefit from taxes and subsidies, and from the direct and indirect economic and developmental effects of nuclear activities. All these benefits are closely related to particular characteristics of nuclear power, which will now be considered in the following sections.