Some Facts on Nuclear Power and the Climate Crisis

* While atomic reactors themselves are not major carbon emitters, the nuclear fuel chain produces significant greenhouse emissions. Taken together, the fuel chain greenhouse emissions approach those of natural gas?and are far higher than emissions from renewable energy sources and energy efficiency technologies.

* Nuclear power does not work well in warming climates. The summer of 2004’s heat wave across Europe caused many reactors to reduce power levels and even shut down entirely because of dwindling river levels. Reactors require vast quantities of water to keep the core cool; changes in water levels and temperatures greatly affects reactor operations.

* According to a 2004 MIT study and the National Commission on Energy Policy’s report, about 1,500 large new reactors would have to be built worldwide to make a meaningful dent in greenhouse emissions. Operation of that many new reactors (currently about 440 exist) would cause known uranium reserves to run out in just a couple of decades?making nuclear power a temporary solution at best or requiring a global program of dirty, dangerous and proliferation-prone reprocessing.

* Operation of 1,500 or more new reactors would create the need for a new Yucca Mountain-sized radioactive waste dump every 3-4 years.

* Operation of 1,500 or more new reactors would require a couple of dozen new uranium enrichment plants, and would result in the production of thousands of tons of plutonium, posing untenable nuclear proliferation threats.

* Construction of 1500 new reactors would cost trillions of dollars. Use of resources of this magnitude would make it impossible to also implement genuinely effective means of addressing global warming. Energy efficiency improvements, for example, are seven times more effective at reducing greenhouse gases, per dollar spent, than nuclear power. Yearly costs per 1000 kg avoided CO2 emissions is $68.9 for wind and $132.5 for nuclear power.

* Nuclear power, which can only produce electricity, cannot even begin to address emissions from automobiles and other components of the transportation sector.