POWER - Nuclear in the News

In the wake of the false alert from the Pickering Nuclear Station on Sunday (12 January 2020), the December 2019 signing of a nuclear power agreement between NB, SK and ON, and the current cold snap, this is my very high level overview: can nuclear power be considered green?

Air: nuclear produces zero CO2 emissions during  generation. The provincial agreement on nuclear could result in positive impacts to climate stability if coal, gas and diesel are closed.

Water: nuclear needs water to create steam to turn turbines.  Water is also required to cool the rods.  Most is through-put, but some is rendered unusable after the process. What happens to it?

Land:  the spent rods need to be safely stored until they’re benign or repurposed, which takes up space. From an extraction perspective – mining of uranium, coal, iron ore, gravel (for silicon), etc. leaves scars on Mother Earth.  Yet there’s ways of reducing all mining impacts.

Radiation:  modern reactors have inherent safety built-in that reduce the probability of meltdowns or radiation releases, without creating plutonium.  

Nuclear isn't perfect, but I fall into the camp of “Another environmentalist for nuclear power.”

Larsen Engineering:  DESIGN + POWER + INSPIRE | 2 of 52