RE: background vs man-made emissions

["Karam, Andrew" <Andrew_Karam@URMC.Rochester.edu>]

In our enchantment with nuclear power, let's not forget that it also takes
resources to mine uranium ore, transport it for processing, enrich it,
fabricate fuel, construct reactor plants, etc.  The Portsmouth plant alone
takes a very large amount of electricity to run, and that comes from fossil
fuel plants.  However, even if we posit nuclear reactors powering the
enrichment facilities, we still have diesel-powered trucks and trains
carrying uranium ore and UF6, carrying reactor components and assembling
them into a reactor, and so forth.

Nuclear power is likely one of the cleaner and safer forms of energy,
especially once the reactor is built and fueled, but it is NOT free of
greenhouse gas emissions if you look at the entire fuel and reactor plant
cycle.  No matter what, there is no such thing as an emissions-free source
of power yet.

Please note that I am NOT an anti-nuke.  I tend to think that nuclear power
is one of our better alternatives.  However, we tend to lose credibility if
we continue to insist that nuclear power is completely free of greenhouse
gas and other emissions.  Let's try to look at the whole picture instead of
only the parts that best support our arguments.

Andy

Andrew Karam, CHP              (716) 275-1473 (voice)
Radiation Safety Officer          (716) 275-3781 (office)
University of Rochester           (716) 256-0365 (fax)
601 Elmwood Ave. Box HPH   Rochester, NY  14642

Andrew_Karam@URMC.Rochester.edu
http://Intranet.urmc.rochester.edu/RadiationSafety

Mathematics may be compared to a mill of exquisite workmanship which
grinds you stuff of any degree of fineness; but, nevertheless, what you
get out depends on what you put in; and as the grandest mill in the
world will not extract wheat-flour from peascods, so pages of formulae
will not get a definite result out of loose data.  (T.H. Huxley, 1869)
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