Reply #104: The nuclear fuel cycle also produces greenhouse gases [View All]

[jpak]

and as uranium ore quality declines, it will produce more and more.

One study concluded that mining and processing of low-grade uranium ore for a 1000 MW nuclear plant will release more CO2 than a similarly sized gas-fired plant.

US uranium enrichment plants release hundreds of thousands of pounds of CFC-114 each year. Every molecule of CFC-114 has a 100-year radiative forcing potential 9300 times greater than CO2.

and when drought and heat waves elevate cooling water temperatures and river flows, nukes are shut down and their power output replaced by diesel and other fossil-fired generators - producing lots of CO2.

Global warming is the best thing that ever happened to the nuclear power (recently anyway) - too bad it's not the solution...