Re: Greenhouse Gases

[Al Tschaeche <antatnsu@pacbell.net>]

Tad Blanchard wrote:
> 
> Question,
> 
> Do Nuclear Power Plants -- INCREASE, DECREASE, OR EQUAL
> greenhouse gas production, compared to conventional (gas, oil, coal)
> power plants?

It depends on what you mean by "Nuclear Power Plants."  If you mean only
the power plant itself, then, when it is running, or not, it puts out
essentially no greenhouse gasses compared to a fossil plant of the same
size.  However, if you mean the whole fuel cycle from mine to waste
disposal, then, I don't know because I have never seen the calculation
done and I'm not about to attempt it in the few minutes we have to talk
on radsafe.  However, at first guess, I would guess that, even
considering the whole fuel cycle for both fossil and nuclear plants,
nuclear plants put out considerably less greenhouse gasses than fossil
plants, probably by orders of magnitude.  Al Tschaeche
antatnsu@pacbell.net