For the Weekend
This weekend I’m going to read these documents prior to a post on nuclear power. Any and all are invited to read them to so that our discussion might be more informed.
- The full document is here. This is a study by a group of MIT professors on the status of Nuclear power in the US and the world.
- The summary is here. This is a summary of the findings in the prior document.
- Finally, in 2009 (the original documents were written in 2003) an update of the current situation given the economic and political conditions is given here.
The summary begins:
At least for the next few decades, there are only a few realistic options for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation:
- increase efficiency in electricity generation and use;
- expand use of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal;
- capture carbon dioxide emissions at fossil-fueled (especially coal) electric generating plants and permanently sequester the carbon; and
- increase use of nuclear power.
The goal of this interdisciplinary MIT study is not to predict which of these options will prevail or to argue for their comparative advantages. In our view, it is likely that we shall need all of these options and accordingly it would be a mistake at this time to exclude any of these four options from an overall carbon emissions management strategy. Rather we seek to explore and evaluate actions that could be taken to maintain nuclear power as one of the significant options for meeting future world energy needs at low cost and in an environmentally acceptable manner.
Filed under: Energy • Environment • Global Warming • Mark O.
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!