Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
I will discuss cost in a later chapter along with the costs
of the other options including the renewables, fossil with
CCS, and biofuels. Suf
ce it to say here that in the United
States nuclear electricity is comparable in cost to coal,
more expensive than gas, and lower cost than the renew-
ables. In Europe, France with its
% nuclear electricity
has the lowest power cost of the major European coun-
tries, and in Asia, nuclear is the low-cost option in Japan
and South Korea.
Nuclear energy is going to expand and countries that
do not now have working nuclear reactors will want them.
Such a future should include ways for countries new to
nuclear energy to learn to operate and regulate their
plants in a safe and secure manner, procedures to produce
the needed fuel without increasing the risk of prolifer-
ation of nuclear weapons, and methods that all can use for
disposal of radioactive material.
There is no one silver bullet to slay the climate-change
dragon, and neither nuclear energy nor the renewables on
their own can solve our greenhouse gas emission problem.
What technologies might be available
years from now
is beyond my vision. We need to get started and, for now,
nuclear power provides us with one of the safest, most
cost-effective alternatives to continuing on our present
course. We should be moving vigorously to increase the
nuclear energy supply.
