Vast grids of power lines stretch across the country, thrumming with the hum of raw electricity, the motive force behind our nation's great industry.

Power plants, squatting over American soil, feed the ever-ravenous lines their electricity, fed themselves by a variety of fuel sources including oil, gas, coal, wind, sun and plutonium.

Now the last source on that list is a matter of some controversy.

The technology behind utilizing plutonium as a power source, harnessing the very power that binds the plutonium atoms themselves, is a double-edged sword.

Millions of Japanese citizens were slaughtered, wiped out of existence by the darker side of this technology. In an instant, an entire city was obliterated by an explosion of unprecedented magnitude.

Twice that occurred and never again.

Small countries are now threatening the United States with the dark side of nuclear technology, North Korea at the forefront.

People are wondering if nuclear technology should be banned with such horrible consequences evident.

Of course, these people focus on only one side of a much broader picture.

When copper technology was invented, people used it to make weapons that were vastly superior to the flint weapons used by others. Today we use copper to transmit energy across the nation.

Steel, when invented, was used to make stronger cannons, stronger guns and warships. Without the advent of steel though, the transcontinental railroad that united the two coasts of the American nation wouldn't have been possible, skyscrapers that challenge the skies would never have been built higher than three stories and even Ginsu knives wouldn't exist.

Arguably, guns, the invention that has killed more people than any other, are also the darker application of a needed technology.

Explosive combustion powers the cars you drive. Gunpowder was originally used in rockets, and the principles learned from them allow us, today, to send men to the moon, to construct an international space station and to colonize the stars.

Nuclear weaponry is a terrible creation. A nuclear explosion creates a blight on the face of the Earth, propagates harmful radiation and can cause large-scale destruction.

The very threat of nuclear war kept two belligerent superpowers at peace for decades, saving countless of lives. So even this horrible weapon has a silver lining.

Once you've explored the dangers of nuclear technology, unless you refuse to explore the benefits, you may draw an incorrect conclusion.

Coal, gas and oil pollute the environment. The power plants utilizing those fuels constantly belch forth greenhouse gases and other pollutants causing global warming, acid rain and just generally stinky air.

Global warming could cause the polar ice caps to melt, raising the sea level enough to swamp coastal cities around the globe.

Acid rain damages crops and eats away at buildings, statues and monuments.

Air pollution causes breathing problems, creates smog, kills flowers and animals and damages our health.

What's the fun in that? Health risks aside, I don't want my air smelling like eau de toilet. And I don't mean the perfume kind either.

Nuclear technology is relatively clean; it neither hurts the air nor devours ridiculous amounts of fuel.

Alternate clean technologies include hydroelectricity, solar power and wind power.

Hydroelectric plants require a dam and a tamed river to turn their turbines. Most of the rivers across the nation that can be dammed have been, and the water flow in those rivers has slowed to a crawl.

Today's solar technology is horribly inefficient. Covering your roof with solar panels might provide enough electricity to heat a pool. On a cloudy day you'd be lucky for that. Solar power plants involve huge fields of solar panels, devouring acres of usable land.

Wind power is the same; it only works well if you have an area with strong gusts and, like solar power, takes up acres of land.

The amount of energy obtained from a single slab of uranium can be calculated with Einstein's famous formula: e=mc2.

What the formula means is that mass can be converted to energy, and that an object's energy equals its rest mass times the velocity of light squared.

The velocity of light is about 3x108 meters per second, so a puny 50-kilogram mass of plutonium would yield 1.5x1010 joules ... a lot of energy.

Sure, nuclear technology can be used destructively. There are always a few bad eggs in the barrel, but overall, if used responsibly, can be utilized for so many good causes.

Ships use nuclear technology to propel themselves across the seas. Radiologists use nuclear technology to save lives. Space probes utilize nuclear technology to power themselves on decade-long journeys. Nuclear technology may even be utilized to aid mankind in colonizing the stars.

This is possible only thanks to the creative uses of nuclear technology and the men who make it possible.