Do the benefits of nuclear energy outweigh its potential harms?

No, the benefits of nuclear energy do not outweigh it's potential energy.  The cons outweigh the pros. Nuclear energy can cause high risks, costs a lot of money, and the waste can last a long time.                                 
    First, Nuclear energy can cause high risks. When something goes wrong with nuclear energy, radiation is released into the environment causing people to die. There are many examples when nuclear energy has gone wrong. For example, just two years ago in Fukushima, Japan, a reactor shut down because of a tsunami and  an earthquake. There was a failure in cooling it which caused an explosion. Similarly,according to http://www.guardian.co.uk there was a incident in Ukraine where there was a major accident which caused "Major release of radio active material with widespread health and environmental effects requiring implementation of planned and extended countermeasures." Because of such high risks nuclear energy outweights it's con.
     Next, Nuclear energy costs a lot of money. A Nuclear infrastructure in can cost from 1.2 to 6.9 billion dollars while solar energy which uses solar panels only cost $2900  per year.  With the amount of money that a nuclear infrastructure uses, we can buy 344 thousand solar panels. Not only will we have more solar panel but with 344 thousand solar panels, it would create more energy.
     Last but not least, nuclear waste can last a long time. Nuclear wast can last between 50 to 10,000 years. According to http://www.whatisnuclear.com in 2002 there were "47,023.40 metric tonnes of high-level waste in the USA." Not only that,  nuclear energy has so much radiation, it can lead to an environmental disaster. 
     In conclusion, Nuclear energy doesn't outweigh it's potential energy because it can cause high risks, cost a lot of money and the wastes can last  longer.