what are the environmental costs of nuclear power ?

Question

what are the cost of the nuclear power?
do u think is safe if australia go nuclear ?
what are the environmental costs ?
Category

Answer 1

i have a question...



"mining and extraction costs carbon in fossil fuel; transportation costs carbon in fossil fuel; processing costs carbon in fossil fuel; building the nuclear power station costs carbon in fossil fuel."



All of this is certainly true, but there are also mining, extraction, transportation, processing, and plant-building costs in the use of fossil fuels for energy also. How do the amounts of carbon released by all those factors compare for nuclear vs. fossil fuel energy? If they are similar, nuclear power would still be a big net reduction in carbon use wouldn't it?

Answer 2

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Renewable-Energy/2006-04-01/The-True-Costs-of-NUCLEAR-POWER.aspx

But the truth is that nuclear power is a global warming weakling. Investing in a nuclear revival would make our global warming predicament worse, not better. The reasons have little to do with nuclear safety and more to do with economics, which may be why environmentalists tend to overlook them.



http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DVWzy9mUxVPI



While being touted as carbon free, nuclear is anything but; mining and extraction costs carbon in fossil fuel; transportation costs carbon in fossil fuel; processing costs carbon in fossil fuel; building the nuclear power station costs carbon in fossil fuel. Then there's the question of highly radioctive waste storage for hundreds of thousands of years, leaks into the environment, coastal flooding of nuclear power stations like Sizewell. And the question of the added energy from splitting atoms which is extra to solar radiation and thus adds to the net energy input to the planet [an issue never even addressed]. It takes at least ten years to build a nuclear station so no quick fix, and decommissioning is even longer. It also costs billions, a price no government could hope to get taxpayers to pay, yet private industry won't fork out that sort of money.

It's a pipe dream, something to use against those who argue renewable power is the only way to go

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_environmental_impact_of_nuclear_energy

Answer 3

Nuclear Power has a mining cost, a construction cost in land and money for the plant, and a need to dispose and/or reprocess the waste. These general indicators may sound scary, but nuclear power is going to eventually become the primary source of power, given its shear output of electricity (up to 1 Gigawatt in a single power plant!) and it's incredible efficiency of accumulating minimal amounts of waste (only 2,200 tons for the entire U.S.overall! which is nowhere near the level generated by fossil fuel powers such as coal annually, and that's already assuming that this waste is not reprocessed, as is done in the "Nuclear Nation" of France, which has exceeded 80% of its electricity coming from nuclear power, and their waste is vastly reduced.



For all it's worth, and for the fact that its power generation process is incredibly clean, nuclear power is undeniably the FOUNDATION for a future in forming an air with few GHG emissions, smog, or sulfur and nitrogen oxides, for the tremendous power generated by nuclear power.



I feel that it is fairly safe for Austrailia to go nuclear, given the dynamics of where people live there in addition to the fact that it would help reduce foreign fossil fuel dependencies for the nation as well.

Answer 4

How right you are Molly. wind and solar power should be the way of the future. I saw on the inventors where a gentleman had worked on solar panels that could follow the sun and cloud made little difference. Every household could generate their own power and sell to the grid for industry. nuclear power stations are not cost effective nor are they environmentally effective when you look at the waste they create and the time that the waste has to be stored for and the risk to man and the environment if it all goes pear shaped. I to will be marching for the future of our country if Howard tries to go nucleara. Instead they should be offering tax breaks to households. Howard cut the budget for wind power research.