Nuclear Power Needs to Double to Curb Global Warming

Experts suggest that without nuclear power the world has little chance of restraining global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius

By Bobby Magill and Climate Central

Since the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in Japan chilled global attitudes toward nuclear power, the world has been slowly reconciling its discomfort with nuclear and the idea that it may have a role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions to tackle climate change.

The International Energy Agency and the Nuclear Energy Agency suggest in a report released Thursday that nuclear will have such a significant role to play in climate strategy that nuclear power generation capacity will have to double by 2050 in order for the world to meet the international 2°C (3.6°F) warming goal.

With fossil fuels growing as sources of electricity across the globe, the IEA sees nuclear power as a stable source of low-carbon power helping to take polluting coal-fired plants offline.

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Nuclear Power Saves Millions Of Lives

Nuclear power is often promoted as a low-carbon source that mitigates fossil fuel emissions and the resulting health damage and deaths caused by air pollution. But is it possible to provide estimates and actually quantify these effects?

A new paper from NASA’s Goddard Institute authored by Pushker Kharecha and James Hansen in the journal Environmental Science and Technology purports to do just that. Hansen is well known as one of the founders of modern global warming science. The authors come up with the striking figure of 1.8 million as the number of lives saved by replacing fossil fuel sources with nuclear.

They also estimate the saving of up to 7 million lives in the next four decades, along with substantial reductions in carbon emissions, were nuclear power to replace fossil fuel usage on a large scale. In addition the study finds that the proposed expansion of natural gas would not be as effective in saving lives and preventing carbon emissions. In general the paper provides optimistic reasons for the responsible and widespread use of nuclear technologies in the near future. It also drives home the point that nuclear energy has prevented many more deaths than what it has caused.

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Nuclear Power - Safer Than Fossil

People are scared of nuclear power plants, and I can't blame them. Disasters such as Chernobyl and Fukushima are certainly frightening.

Engineers insist that they can build much safer nuclear power plants, and protect them against natural disasters such as the earthquake and tsunami that smashed up the Fukushima plants in Japan.

Of course, it would be better if nuclear power plants were sited in locations that are not prone to earthquakes and tsunamis. But even so, the cold facts are that nuclear power plants are far safer than power plants using fossil fuels.

Accidents in coal mines, oil rigs, and natural gas pipelines have taken far more lives over the years than nuclear power plant accidents.

Moreover, fossil fuel power plants pollute the air we breathe and the water we drink. Their emissions of greenhouse gases are a major factor in the warming of our global climate.

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