Re: Nuclear Power vs CO2

[Al Tschaeche <antatnsu@pacbell.net>]

Thanks Mort.  So, from your last sentence, could one state that, on a per
gigawatt basis, a nuclear plant and its associated fuel cycle would produce 94.5%
less CO2 than a comparable coal plant and its fuel cycle?  Al Tschaeche
antatnsu@pacbell.net

Mrtgoldman@aol.com wrote:

> I've just returned to RADSAFE after several weeks away, and going through the
> accumulated digests I came across the question from Mr Jo <mjo@scs.unr.edu>
> but didn't see a specific answer to his question about CO2 production from
> nuclear fuel cycle energy usage in subsequent posts.   Since this was a very
> common question raised by opponents during the licensing of nuclear plants in
> the 70's and 80's, it was addressed in a number of hearings, and in generic
> environmental impact studies of alternative energy technologies.
>
> One value frequently seen is 56 MW(e)-year of energy from coal combustion to
> operate the nuclear fuel cycle for 1 GW(e)-year of output (see Table 13, in
> Gotchy, Health Risks from the Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Chapter 2 in "Health Risks
> of Energy Technologies",  C.C. Travis & E. L. Etnier, AAAS Selected Symposium
> 82,  1983).  NEI cites 265 MT of C produced by burning coal in generating 1
> million KW-hr - 1 GW(e)-hr (NEI Fact Sheet, Benefits of Nuclear Energy, 1998)
> - or 2.32 E6 MT of C  (or 8.51E6 MT CO2) per GW(e)-yr.
>
> Thus, nuclear fuel cycle energy requirements, if satisfied entirely by
> burning coal, would generate 5.6% of the CO2 produced in generating the same
> amount of energy by coal alone, or about 4.77 MT CO2 per GW(e)-year.
>
> Mort Goldman, Sc.D., PE
> Retired troublemaker
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