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US should focus on energy efficiency and renewables not nuclear, says report

Diable Canyon nuclear plant (Credit: Marya, Wikimedia Commons)

The US should focus on energy efficiency and renewables to tackle climate change not new nuclear capacity, says a report from environmental organisation Environment California.

To avoid the worst effects of climate change, the US must roughly halve emissions from its power plants over the next ten years, but it would take too long to construct new nuclear plants to have an effect, the report claims.

Starting from scratch, it could take ten years or more to construct a new reactor, claims the group. Even if the US did make an unprecedented investment of the estimated $600 billion needed to construct 100 new reactors by 2030, it would still only reduce US emissions by around 12%.

“Nuclear power is a foolish investment that will set us back in the race against global warming,” says Bernadette Del Chiaro of Environment California.

Instead, energy efficiency can have an immediate effect on emissions and renewable installations such as wind farms could come online much sooner to provide low-carbon electricity.

The need for base-load power from sources such as nuclear has been exaggerated, says the report, and small-scale clean energy solutions could even enhance the reliability of the electricity grid.

The report, Generating Failure: How Building Nuclear Power Plants Would Set America Back in the Race Against Global Warming, is being backed by environmental and consumer groups.

“Counting on new nuclear reactors as a climate change solution is no more sensible than counting on an un-built dam to create a lake to fight a nearby forest fire,” comments former nuclear regulatory commissioner Peter Bradford.

But the US Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) is calling for resurgence in federal support for the industry to support a major expansion. Over the last two years, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received around 25 license applications for new reactors, some of which could start operation as soon as 2016.

The US currently has 104 nuclear reactors spread across 31 states, which provide 20% of the nation’s electricity and 72% of its low-carbon supply.

For further information:
www.environmentcalifornia.org/uploads/5d/f7/5df75d20f9097a7bcd69a41ee4284998/Generating-Failure---Environment-California---Web.pdf
www.nei.org/

20 November 2009

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