Nuclear fear: The irrational obstacle to real climate action

ABSTRACT

History instructs us that electrical power can be decarbonized in less than a dozen years with combinations of renewable and nuclear energy, but exaggerated fears of the latter have made it too costly and unpopular to develop and deploy in much of the world, allowing Russia and China to capture the nuclear export market. If humanity is genuinely serious about rapid decarbonization to avoid the worst health and climate risks, it will need to take steps to rapidly improve and deploy both nuclear and renewable energy.

KEYWORDS:

• Nuclear power
• climate change
• nuclear safety
• comparative risk
• risk assessment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes

1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0013935121000487

2. These measures do not bring these reactors up to modern safety standards, and for this reason, they probably ought to be shut down.

3. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission demands that nuclear power plants be able to withstand events whose annual likelihood is one in 10 million. This is an absurd standard by any measure, given that it is impossible to accurately quantify the probable magnitude of events that would occur on average once in 10 million years. See Regulatory Guide 1.221, Design-Basis Hurricane and Hurricane Missiles for Nuclear Power Plants. (nrc.gov) (https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1109/ML110940300.pdf).

4. See https://www.energy.gov/ne/nuclear-fuel-facts-uranium.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Kerry Emanuel

Kerry Emanuel is a prominent meteorologist and climate scientist at MIT, who specializes in moist convection in the atmosphere, and tropical cyclones. He is co-founder of the MIT Lorenz Center, a climate think tank which fosters creative approaches to learning how climate works. Professor Emanuel is the author or co-author of over 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers and three books.