Shrader-Frechette.qxp 17/8/09 11:28 Page 59
Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Nuclear Energy
uranium hexafluoride (UF6), UF6 enrichment, fuel fabrication, reactor (104)(19,230) or 1,999,920MWhr/year, or about 2,000,000,000kWhr
construction, reactor operation, waste processing, waste conditioning, per year, and are largely met by fossil fuels.
24
However, each kWhr of
radioactive waste storage during its high-temperature period, US coal-generated electricity produces (on average) more than 2lb
nuclear waste transport to permanent management facilities, (0.91kg) of CO
2
.
25
Consequently, because nuclear-fuel-cycle stage
perpetually storing radioactive waste and reactor decommissioning and four relies mainly on coal-generated electricity, its CO
2
emissions
uranium-mine(s) reclamation. alone are 4,000,000,000lb (1,814,369,000kg) annually. Similar
GHGEs, waste products and transport needs characterise all 13
When emissions argument proponents say nuclear energy is nuclear-fuel-cycle stages, helping to explain why each reactor takes 11
carbon-free, they ignore the GHGEs from most of the 13 years to ‘pay back’ energy used prior to start-up; pay-back for natural
nuclear-fuel-cycle stages. They trim the data and typically calculate gas plants is only six months.
23
emissions only from stages seven and sometimes four or five. As a
Calculating Total Nuclear-fuel-cycle
Each of the 13 nuclear-fuel-
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
What are total nuclear-fuel-cycle GHGEs? If one excludes
cycle stages creates high
all fuel lifecycle GHGE analyses that rely on secondary sources,
levels of greenhouse gas
are unpublished or fail to explain GHGE estimation/calculation methods,
emissions in using mainly fossil
103 fuel-lifecycle GHGE studies remain. These calculate nuclear-fuel-cycle
GHGEs ranging from 1.4 to 288g CO
2
-equivalent emissions per kWh of
fuels for raw materials, product generated electricity (gCO
2
/kWh). Nuclear industry studies typically give
output and radioactive waste
total GHGE as 1.4g/kWh, but consider only one to three nuclear-fuel-cycle
stages, typically stages four, five or seven. Some environmental groups
storage transport. give total GHGEs as 288g/kWh, but appear to count some GHGEs twice.
The mean total GHGEs calculated by all 103 studies (described above) is
consequence, they claim that atomic energy produces minimal/ 66gCO
2
/kWh, which is roughly what independent university scientists
no GHGEs. However, even under optimal, low-pollution conditions, (funded by neither industry nor environmental groups) calculate at places
only fuel-cycle stage seven is typically carbon-free.
19
such as Columbia, Oxford and Singapore.
19,26–28
Nuclear-fuel-cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions Moreover, the preceding university analyses use current, refereed,
Each of the 13 nuclear-fuel-cycle stages creates high levels of GHGEs in published, empirical data on nuclear facility lifetimes: efficiency (load
using mainly fossil fuels for raw materials, product output and factors), enrichment methods, plant types, fuel grades and so on.
radioactive waste storage transport. Each stage releases many GHGEs Their calculations (fairly consistent across universities) reveal ratios for
because most processes rely mainly on coal-generated electricity. mean full-fuel-lifecycle GHGEs across different energy technologies.
This ratio for coal:combined-cycle natural gas:nuclear:solar PV:wind
Consider nuclear-fuel-cycle stages two to four – uranium milling,
conversion and enrichment. Stage two (milling) requires roughly 1,000
metric tons of uranium ore to produce 1 ton of yellowcake using mainly
Because emissions argument
coal-generated electricity to grind ore into small particles, chemically
leach it and process it.
20,21
Stage three (conversion and purification of
proponents ignore most atomic
yellowcake into UF6) also releases substantial GHGEs because it
energy fuel cycle emissions, they
employs mostly fossil-based electricity for extraction/fluorination/
fractionation processes and because yellowcake is often 20% impure
commit a fallacy of composition.
and only about 60% uranium ore.
22
Stage four (UF6 enrichment and concentration into roughly 5% U-235) is 1,010:443:66:32:9 – roughly 112 coal: 49 gas: 7 nuclear: 4 solar:
releases substantial GHGEs because it uses mainly coal-generated 1 wind. If preceding university calculations are correct, they suggest
electricity; because UF6 is only about 0.7% usable, fissionable U-235,
23
atomic energy fuel cycles emit about 16 times fewer GHGEs than coal,
and because it creates a lot of radioactive waste that must be reclaimed, about two times more GHGE than solar and about seven times more
secured and shipped for storage. Processing 1,000 metric tons of UF6 in than wind.
29
a modern gaseous-diffusion (enrichment) plant produces 124 tons of
enriched UF6 and 876 tons of radioactive waste tailings, and requires Trimming Nuclear-fuel-cycle Emissions via
951,542,500kWhr electricity. Thus, obtaining 1kg of enriched UF6 at Kyoto Conventions
nuclear-fuel-cycle stage four requires 7,674kWhr of electricity that Because emissions argument proponents ignore most atomic energy
virtually all comes from fossil fuels.
24
fuel cycle emissions, they commit a fallacy of composition. That is, they
make a logically invalid inference about GHGEs from some (one to
Because each reactor annually uses about 149 metric tons of enriched three) to all (13) of the nuclear-fuel-cycle stages. However, trimming
UF6,
23
each therefore requires roughly 19,230MWhr/year of largely data on nuclear-fuel-cycle GHGEs may arise partly from Kyoto Protocol
fossil-fuelled electricity just for fuel-cycle-stage four production. For all conventions. These conventions assess carbon content from fission
104 US commercial reactors, stage four electricity needs alone are fuels only at their consumption point (electricity generation). As a
MODERN ENERGY REVIEW VOLUME 1
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