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Greenhouse gas emissions per energy source. Nuclear power is one of the sources with the least greenhouse gas emissions.Nuclear power activities involving the environment; mining, enrichment, generation and geological disposal.
Nuclear power has various environmental impacts, both positive and negative, including the construction and operation of the plant, the nuclear fuel cycle, and the effects of nuclear accidents. Nuclear power plants do not burn fossil fuels and so do not directly emit carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide emitted during mining, enrichment, fabrication and transport of fuel is small when compared with the carbon dioxide emitted by fossil fuels of similar energy yield, however, these plants still produce other environmentally damaging wastes.[1] Nuclear energy and renewable energy have reduced environmental costs by decreasing CO2 emissions resulting from energy consumption.[2]
There is a catastrophic risk potential if containment fails,[3] which in nuclear reactors can be brought about by overheated fuels melting and releasing large quantities of fission products into the environment.[4] In normal operation, nuclear power plants release less radioactive material than coal power plants whose fly ash contains significant amounts of thorium, uranium and their daughter nuclides.[5]
A large nuclear power plant may reject waste heat to a natural body of water; this can result in undesirable increase of the water temperature with adverse effect on aquatic life. Alternatives include cooling towers.[6]
The Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant – a plant that cools by direct use of ocean water, not requiring a cooling tower
Mining of uranium ore can disrupt the environment around the mine. However, with modern in-situ leaching technology this impact can be reduced compared to "classical" underground or open-pit mining. Disposal of spent nuclear fuel is controversial, with many proposed long-term storage schemes under intense review and criticism. Diversion of fresh- or low-burnup spent fuel to weapons production presents a risk of nuclear proliferation, however all nuclear weapons states derived the material for their first nuclear weapon from (non-power) research reactors or dedicated "production reactors" and/or uranium enrichment. Finally, some parts the structure of the reactor itself becomes radioactive through neutron activation and will require decades of storage before it can be economically dismantled and in turn disposed of as waste. Measures like reducing the cobalt content in steel to decrease the amount of cobalt-60 produced by neutron capture can reduce the amount of radioactive material produced and the radiotoxicity that originates from this material.[7] However, part of the issue is not radiological but regulatory as most countries assume any given object that originates from the "hot" (radioactive) area of a nuclear power plant or a facility in the nuclear fuel cycle is ipso facto radioactive, even if no contamination or neutron irradiation induced radioactivity is detectable.
^"Electricity and the environment - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)". www.eia.gov. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
^Sadiq, Muhammad; Shinwari, Riazullah; Wen, Fenghua; Usman, Muhammad; Hassan, Syed Tauseef; Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad (2023-02-01). "Do globalization and nuclear energy intensify the environmental costs in top nuclear energy-consuming countries?". Progress in Nuclear Energy. 156: 104533. doi:10.1016/j.pnucene.2022.104533. ISSN 0149-1970.
^International Panel on Fissile Materials (September 2010). "The Uncertain Future of Nuclear Energy" (PDF). Research Report 9. p. 1.
^"Environment and Health in Electricity Generation - World Nuclear Association". world-nuclear.org. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
^"Coal Ash is More Radioactive than Nuclear Waste: Scientific American".
^Liu, Xingmin (November 2018). "Nuclear District Heating Warm the World, Guard the Globe (Deep-pool Low-temperature Heating Reactor---DHR)" (PDF). International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation.
^Resnikoff, Marvin (November 2019). "Decommissioned Nuclear Reactors Are Hot" (PDF). Vermont Department of Public Service.
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