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Nuclear Footprint Australia

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Australia has one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emission footprints compared to its population on earth. As of 2006, Australia's emissions were the highest of any OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development) nation with 26.7 tonnes per person per year of equivalent carbon dioxide (Garnaut 2008). In comparison, the United States had just 20.6 tonnes per person per year of equivalent carbon dioxide in 2006 (Garnaut 2008). The largest contributor to Australia's emission footprint is the energy sector, accounting for 45.5% of emissions between 2005 and 2006 (Garnaut 2008). Further breaking this number down, we observe that ~79% of our electrical generation is done via coal (Garnaut 2008). Coal is a major cause of greenhouse …show more content…

The major focus will be on uranium based reactors, and to assess the potential of nuclear, it will also be compared to other renewable energy sources, for instance solar and wind. All information and figures used in this investigation were collected from reputable sources such as peer-reviewed journals, and intergovernmental organisation reports. References were carefully chosen that provide a non-biased investigation into their topic, and that the information quoted in them was sourced from trustworthy sources. Despite this, there is no guarantee that claims made in the papers will be genuine, and so care has been taken to ensure multiple sources for any information where …show more content…

In comparison, the only substance nuclear energy emits into the atmosphere is steam. However, once we view the entire nuclear cycle the environmental dangers of nuclear energy become clear. Once depleted, nuclear fuel remains dangerously radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years and over that period it is important for it to be stored in a secure facility away from populated areas. The majority of Australia's population lives on the coastline, with the interior of the country being mostly inhospitable to humans. This barrenness provides the perfect location for a storage facility to be built in Australia. The alternative is to ship our waste to another nation such as the United States to be stored. The main danger with nuclear waste, however, comes from transporting it from the nuclear power plant to the storage facility. If we were to transport it by rail or truck, what happens if the aforementioned vehicle has an accident. What about if we were to transport the waste via ship overseas and it was to sink. It are these ‘what if’ scenarios that must be taken into consideration when deciding whether nuclear energy will be beneficial to our environment. In contrast, minimal environmental danger surrounds the use of solar and wind power, aside from the clearing of land for them

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