In recent years, the energy consumption particularly in electricity sector significantly has been increased around the world. This led to the use of alternative sources of energy such as wind, solar, hydroelectric and also nuclear energy due to the global concerns about environmental protection and reduction of CO2 emissions. Numerous factors are important in selection of appropriate option among various sources of electricity generation which can be related to the geographical and climatological conditions, access to the fossil fuels, environmental, social and economic factors. Regard to the global environmental statements and the significant effects of energy sector on it, public trends are towards the use of high efficient and less pollutant technologies for generation of electricity. Among the future resources for energy generation, the nuclear energy is well-known as a zero emission method for electricity production around the world. Moreover, high amount of electricity generation with minimal fuel consumption, secure access to the sources of energy, having the lower production, operation and capital costs and appropriate decommissioning phase are other advantages of using nuclear energy for electricity production. In this paper, a comprehensive study has been carried out on different aspects and effects of nuclear energy as a source of energy for electricity generation. Then the results were compared with fossil fuel electricity with consideration of environmental and economic concerns. Consequently, results showed that the nuclear energy can be a competitive and alternative source of energy rather than fossil fuels when the external costs including CO2 emissions are calculated in economic analysis. However, there are still a lot of concerns about nuclear waste management, probable accidents and safety issues.