Nuclear Power and Climate Change Adriana Mugnatto-Hamu Climate Change Conference August 14

Problems Joshua highlighted with nuclear power: 1.Long construction times 2.Declining ore grades

Lifecycle CO 2 e of Electricity Sources Low EstimateHigh Estimate Reproduced with permission.

Time Between Planning & Operation Nuclear: y (life 40 y) Site permit: y Construction permit approval and issue y Construction time years (Average today in China = 7.1 years) Hydroelectric: y (life 80 y) Coal-CCS: y (life 35 y) Geothermal:3 - 6 y (life 35 y) Ethanol: y (life 40 y) CSP: y (life 30 y) Solar-PV: y (life 30 y) Wave:2 - 5 y (life 15 y) Tidal:2 - 5 y (life 15 y) Wind: y (life 30 y) Reproduced with permission.

CO 2 e From Current Power Mix due to Planning-to-Operation Delays, Relative to Wind Low EstimateHigh Estimate Reproduced with permission.

Nuclear limitations for load shifting no reactor on the planet can drop output more than 50% below the nominal ability to vary output decreases over the fuel cycle varying output by limiting the reaction increases risk and decreases reactor lifespan reducing output below the nominal for significant amounts of time increases the cost of nuclear per kilowatt hour

A coal plant must be running at capacity when it is replaced by a nuclear plant

Nuclear reactors reduce emissions if they replace existing reactors at the end of their lives or they can be a small part of a suite of tactics to reduce many coal plants

Total CO 2 e of Electricity Sources Low EstimateHigh Estimate Reproduced with permission.

Reproduced with permission. R. Kenny, C. Law, J.M. Pearce, Towards real energy economics: Energy policy driven by life-cycle carbon emission, Energy Policy, Volume 38, Issue 4, April 2010, Pages , ISSN , DOI: /j.enpol (

Reproduced with permission. R. Kenny, C. Law, J.M. Pearce, Towards real energy economics: Energy policy driven by life-cycle carbon emission, Energy Policy, Volume 38, Issue 4, April 2010, Pages , ISSN , DOI: /j.enpol (

Reproduced with permission. R. Kenny, C. Law, J.M. Pearce, Towards real energy economics: Energy policy driven by life-cycle carbon emission, Energy Policy, Volume 38, Issue 4, April 2010, Pages , ISSN , DOI: /j.enpol (

But what about… Footprint Transition Reliability Cost

But what about… Footprint Transition Reliability Cost

"The amounts of fuel and waste that must be dealt with at a nuclear reactor can be up to one million times smaller than the amounts of fuel and waste at an equivalent fossil-fuel power station."

Area to Power 100% of U.S. Onroad Vehicles Cellulosic E % of US Solar PV- BEV % Corn E % of US Wind-BEV Footprint km 2 Turbine spacing % of US Geoth BEV % Nuclear-BEV % Footprint 33% of total; the rest is buffer Reproduced with permission.

But what about… Footprint Transition Reliability Cost

But what about… Footprint Transition Reliability Cost

1.The wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine when you need them to 2.Nuclear output is steady

Meeting peak demand Solar power Storage Biofuels Carbon capture Hydro power Load shifting

But what about… Footprint Transition Reliability Cost

Reproduced with permission. R. Kenny, C. Law, J.M. Pearce, Towards real energy economics: Energy policy driven by life-cycle carbon emission, Energy Policy, Volume 38, Issue 4, April 2010, Pages , ISSN , DOI: /j.enpol (

Matching Hourly Summer 2020 Electricity Demand with 100% Renewables (No Change in Hydro) Total Demand Geothermal Wind Solar Hydro