There is still no viable way to permanently dispose of the radioactive material that is produced at every stage of a nuclear power plant’s life, from the mining and enrichment of uranium through operation to the spent fuel. To prevent nuclear proliferation, most countries have signed onto international agreements to limit nuclear weapons, and the International Atomic Energy Agency regularly inspects nuclear facilities to monitor their nuclear materials. position since the Ford administration has been to not reprocess fuel, because we don’t really want other countries reprocessing their fuel,” said Matt Bowen, a research scholar focusing on nuclear energy at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. However, enrichment is controversial because the process can sometimes be used to create uranium for nuclear weapons, as can reprocessing spent fuel to recover uranium and plutonium to recycle them for fresh fuel. The process of concentrating and increasing the U-235 in relation to U-238 is called enrichment. The uranium found in nature consists of mostly uranium-238, and a tiny amount of uranium-235, which is what is needed for fission. Chernobyl’s reactor site will be radioactive for tens of thousands of years. Fukushima’s meltdown drove over 200,000 people from their homes. While nuclear accidents are rare, the consequences are catastrophic. Similar light water reactors, cooled with ordinary water, make up the majority of the nuclear reactors in use. In the U.S., nuclear power plants have generated almost 20 percent of electricity for the last 20 years.īoth the Three Mile Island and Fukushima accidents began after the reactors were shut down and a lack of power prevented the pumps from circulating water to cool the decaying fuel. The state of nuclear energy todayĪround the world, 440 nuclear reactors currently provide over 10 percent of global electricity. Without nuclear energy, the power it generated would have been supplied by fossil fuels, which would have increased carbon emissions and resulted in air pollution that could have caused millions more deaths each year. In the last 50 years, nuclear energy has precluded the creation of 60 gigatons of carbon dioxide, according to the International Energy Agency. One study calculated that a kilowatt hour of nuclear-generated electricity has a carbon footprint of 4 grams of CO2 equivalent, compared to 4 grams for wind and 6 grams for solar energy - versus 109 grams for coal, even with carbon capture and storage. And despite their fossil fuel consumption, their carbon footprints are almost as low as those of renewable energy. The energy to mine and refine the uranium that fuels nuclear power and manufacture the concrete and metal to build nuclear power plants is usually supplied by fossil fuels, resulting in CO2 emissions however, nuclear plants do not emit any CO2 or air pollution as they operate. Nuclear power is the second largest source of clean energy after hydropower. What is the current state of nuclear energy in the U.S., and what role could it play in a decarbonized future? Nuclear energy’s role in fighting climate change Biden’s $2 trillion climate plan, recognizing this urgency, includes support for the development of nuclear energy. Every pathway the IPCC envisioned to achieve this goal requires an increase in nuclear energy-of 59 to 106 percent more than 2010 levels by 2030. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that we must keep the planet from warming more than 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels by 2030. President-elect Joe Biden comes into office at a time when phasing out fossil fuels is critical.
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