How do you define 'green', and 'emissions'? If a nuclear energy
plant generates less greenhouse gas emissions (and other gas
emissions) in its life cycle than gas or coal, does that make it
green? By what percentage do the emissions need to be less?
If a paper mill is carbon neutral, sourcing all of its energy from
the sun and all of its fibre from recycled office paper, is it
green? What if the mill dumps tons of dioxins into the nearby
river, is it green? If it reduces that to 5kg/year of dioxins, then
is it green?
While the question of life-cycle emissions is valid and important,
it is incomplete. Something that is 'green', depending on your
definition, may not necessarily be sustainable.
If 'green' means 'sustainable' the question must include nuclear
waste and mining with all its ecological and health ramifications.
If 'green' doesn't mean 'sustainable' then the why are we aiming
for 'green' in the first place?
So, what exactly do we mean by green?
Christopher, you bring up a lot of interesting issues. I'm trying
to figure out how much concrete and steel is needed to build a
plant. Of course, these are very carbon intensive. It would be
interesting to compare conventional nuclear technology to some of
the newer ones. If they in fact take ten or hundred times less in
concrete, then there is a case that nuclear can be "low carbon".
As energy multinationals invested a large sum of money they need
nuclear power unless they haven´t finished large scale Green Energy
Power Stations based on Water, Wind, Biomass and Solar. So for me
it´s a intermediary solution. Just my 5 cents
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3 Comments
If a paper mill is carbon neutral, sourcing all of its energy from the sun and all of its fibre from recycled office paper, is it green? What if the mill dumps tons of dioxins into the nearby river, is it green? If it reduces that to 5kg/year of dioxins, then is it green?
While the question of life-cycle emissions is valid and important, it is incomplete. Something that is 'green', depending on your definition, may not necessarily be sustainable.
If 'green' means 'sustainable' the question must include nuclear waste and mining with all its ecological and health ramifications. If 'green' doesn't mean 'sustainable' then the why are we aiming for 'green' in the first place?
So, what exactly do we mean by green?
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