| Green Energy |
| What is green energy? Can Nuclear Power ever be considered green? Well really this is a matter of opinion. In my opinion green energy is energy that does not pollute the environment. Realistically this is impossible. All sources of electricity generation have an environmental consequence...yes even wind power. That's one reason why no one source of genration is a panacea, diversity in the grid helps distribute environmental effects. Does Nuclear qualify? -It emits no pollution to the atmosphere as a consequence of electricity production. -Its waste is solid and therefore manageable. -Its major release product, radioactivity, is at a level that does not harm humans. -Its "footprint", the land required is extremely small. -Furthermore it does so with a lifetime cost that rivals or betters the cheapest fossil fuel options. That's the qualitative part of the argument. Now for numbers. Dr. Jeremy Whitlock and Morgan Brown keep a monthly tally of numbers at www.nuclearfaq.ca |
| Canada has 17 operating nuclear reactors. In April 2004 they did the following: Avoided (if fossil was used) -6 300 000 tonnes of CO2 -24 500 tonnes of NOx -28 200 tonnes of SO2 -8 900 tonnes of particulates Not to mention all the tonnes of toxic ash that would also be produced and stored. According to studies which estimate 20-100 deaths per GigaWatt-year of coal fired elctricity generation due to respiratory illness, 15-90 deaths were avoided in April in Canada. Remember this is with only 17 reactors. The United States has 103. They are different designs (CANDU Vs. PWR) but do the rough math and the results are staggering. |
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| Cooling towers destroy the myth of nuclear as green energy, right? Wrong! See that stuff coming out. It is steam. That's right just good old H-2-O. Water. |
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| Faced with numbers like this the anti-nuclear crowd resorts to some pretty simplistic tactics. I actually had to respond to an editorial in my hometown newspaper to defend the notion that "Nuclear power can't be green energy, it takes diesel equipment to dig up uranium and all that manufacturing it involves." I find this argument to be pretty naive. Where does the material for a wind turbine come from? Does it grow on trees? Fortunately there are studies done on life cycle emmisions...taking into account all aspects of manufacturing and operation. In each of these studies Nuclear Power ranks first or second only to wind power. Coupled with the fact that nuclear is a practical, large scale source and it is easy to see why this is green power for the future! Several studies are found at The Nuclear Energy Institute. |
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