Nukes and Climate Change

New study (which reviews 103 previous studies and finds nearly all lacking) concludes that nuclear power is not carbon-free, and its carbon emissions, while far lower than all fossil fuels, are higher than renewable sources of energy. Published in Energy Policy, by Benjamin Sovacool, University of Singapore & Virginia Tech.

Friends of the Earth memo on nuclear power and the Lieberman-Warner climate change bill.

A new report argues that the world’s supply of uranium ore is now so depleted that the nuclear industry may already have passed the point at which it is able to supply the energy needed even to dispose of its own wastes. In The Lean Guide to Nuclear Energy, A Life-Cycle in Trouble, British energy economist David Fleming details how the nuclear industry will be forced to become a major net user of energy, almost all of it from fossil fuels. ‘The evidence is clear: even under the most optimistic scenarios for uranium supplies, the industry will face `energy bankruptcy’ in a matter of decades,’ says Fleming.

Resource Paper (including 2 pages of citations) by Mary Olson: “The New Nuclear Deal with India and the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership are Not a Solution to Nuclear Weapons Proliferation; Expanding Nuclear Power is Not a Solution to the Climate Crisis”

NIRS hand-out on why nuclear energy is incapable of reversing the Climate Crisis — 3.5 pages with 21 references by Mary Olson.

Union of Concerned Scientists Backgrounder: Rising Temperatures Undermine Nuclear Power’s Promise