9-21-2016 Every nuclear generating station spews about two-thirds of the energy it burns inside its reactor core into the environment. Only one-third is converted into electricity. Another tenth of that is lost in transmission. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists:
Every day large reactors like the two at Diablo Canyon, California individually dump about 1.25 billion gallons of water into the ocean at temperatures up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the natural environment. Diablo’s “once-through cooling system” takes water out of the ocean and dumps it back superheated, irradiated and laden with toxic chemicals. Many U.S. reactors use cooling towers which emit huge quantities of steam and water vapor that also directly warm the atmosphere. All nuclear reactors emit Carbon 14, a radioactive isotope, invalidating the industry’s claim that reactors are “carbon free.” And the fuel that reactors burn is carbon-intensive. And of course there’s the problem of nuclear waste. After more than a half-century of well-funded attempts we’ve seen no solution for the management of atomic power’s intensely radioactive waste.
The mining, milling, and enrichment processes needed to produce the pellets that fill the fuel rods inside the reactor cores all involve major energy expenditures, nearly all of it based on coal, oil, or gas. …There are no credible estimates of the global warming damage done by the intensely hot explosions at the four Fukushima reactors, or at Chernobyl, or at any other past and future reactor meltdowns or blowups. …
Overall the idea that atomic power is “clean” or “carbon free” or “emission free” is a very expensive misconception, especially when compared to renewable energy, efficiency and conservation. Among conservation, efficiency, solar and wind power technologies there are no global warming analogs to the heat, carbon and radioactive waste impacts of nuclear power. No green technology kills anywhere near the number of impacts of nuclear power. No green technology kills anywhere near the number of marine organisms that die through reactor cooling systems….
Nuclear fission is the most water intensive method of the principal thermoelectric generation options in terms of the amount of water withdrawn from sources. In 2008 nuclear power plants withdrew eight times as much freshwater as natural gas plants per unit of energy produced and up to 11 percent more than the average coal plant….
No terrorist will ever threaten one of our cities by blowing up a solar panel. But the nuclear industry that falsely claims its dying technology doesn’t cause global warming does threaten the future of our planet.
-Harvey Wasserman wrote SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH. He edits nukefree.org
-Nuclear power protest in Derby, UK, Indymedia https://progressive.org/dispatches/nuclear-power-causes-global-warming/
Modern reactors are up to 45% efficient. Coal-burning plants are closer to 30% efficient. Wind, solar, and geothermal also have the same transmission losses as nuclear.
ReplyDeleteMost modern reactors under consideration are based on cooling with molten salt, molten sodium, molten lead etc., and don't require enormous amounts of water that older light & boiling water reactors require.
Newly designed modern reactors don't give off any appreciable carbon. Most new reactor designs have not since the 70s. The carbon footprint of producing the same amount of energy with wind and solar as with nuclear will be millions of times larger than the carbon footprint of nuclear reactors. That is because while wind and solar and nuclear do not generate carbon during their energy production phase, carbon is burned during the machine build phase. And since nuclear reactors are millions of times more energy production efficient per kilogram than wind and solar are, the mass of wind and solar machinery required to produce the same amount of energy as nuclear reactors produce is millions of times larger. And thus, "green technology" kills many more people than nuclear power does. In fact, nuclear power is the greenest of all green technologies.
Many modern reactors burn nuclear waste. They are perhaps the best method of removing the nuclear waste that you are worried about.
The explosions at Fukushima and Chernobyl were hydrogen explosions not intensely hot nuclear explosions, as you seem to think. Modern reactors not based on water do not have their problems. They are walk-away safe.
There are no credible estimates of the global warming damage done by the explosions at the four Fukushima reactors or at Chernobyl, or at any other past and future reactor meltdowns or blowups, because they are not necessary. The amount of hydrogen burned up in those explosions was miniscule, as in billionths of a percent of fossil fuel carbon footprint.
The mining,& milling processes needed to produce solar panels and wind turbines all involve major energy expenditures, nearly all of it based on coal, oil, or gas. The production and eventual deconstruction of wind and solar power machinery is as fossil fuel dependent as Nuclear Power machinery is. Except Nuclear Power machinery has a millions-to-one efficiency advantage per facility mass compared to solar and wind, because of the incredibly higher energy output per mass nuclear reactors have compared to wind and solar.
You need to get informed Harvey Wasserman, you are behind the times. You do not understand modern nuclear power. Folks like you who think that they know what they are talking about and scare people away from nuclear power are doing more to destroy our planet than similar people who don't know what they're talking about, but just shut up. You're not making things better, you're making things worse.