Will nuclear power deliver a climate dividend?

Using nuclear power to mitigate climate change would require a doubling of nuclear power output by the middle of the century. This would require the construction of about 1000 reactors with a capital cost of several thousand billion dollars. The reactors would produce 1.5 million tonnes of high-level nuclear waste over a 50-year lifespan, and they would produce enough plutonium to build 1.5 million nuclear weapons.

The climate dividend? A 5% reduction in greenhouse emissions, and that is only about one-tenth of the reduction needed.

That meagre dividend assumes that the comparison is with fossil fuels. If the comparison is with renewable energy sources and energy efficiency measures, nuclear power would result in increased greenhouse emissions in addition to the legacy of nuclear waste and plutonium. A US study found that, per dollar invested, energy efficiency measures yield greenhouse emission reductions seven times greater than nuclear power.

Green Left Weekly