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The Pros And Cons Of Renewable Carbon Emission

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Lester Brown begins with a stern warning: business as usual is no longer a viable option. In almost everywhere one looks, the future looks bleak. Desertification is spreading at a furious pace globally in countries like China and Nigeria due to over-grazing of land. The world’s aquifers are being over-pumped to sustain a growing demand for water. Polar ice caps and glaciers are melting at an accelerated place and this is displacing large populations living in low-lying areas such as in Bangladesh.

In order to avert this environmental calamity, Brown lists four bold strategies in Plan B: cutting net carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2020, stabilizing global population at 8 billion or lower, eradicating poverty and restoring the earth’s natural …show more content…

Brown also foresees a political problem – which nuclear power may be selectively pursued by the developed countries only. However, I am of the opinion that nuclear power remains credible and is the solution to lowering carbon emissions. The next section of this paper will expand on the arguments for nuclear power, against the backdrop of renewable energy challenges and nuclear …show more content…

According to data from the Nuclear Energy Institute, nuclear energy accounted for 63.3% of emission-free electricity in the US while solar, wind and thermal energy collectively accounted for only 15.4% of emission-free electricity in the US. The operating capacity of solar and wind energy farms hinge on intermittent environmental conditions and thus, these methods are only able to attain an average capacity of 20-30%. This is in stark contrast to nuclear energy’s average capacity of 86%. 4 Opponents may point out that the processes used to build and fuel the nuclear energy plants will emit pollutants and greenhouse gases. However, studies have found that the life-cycle emissions of nuclear plants is comparable to the other forms of renewable energy.5

Secondly, the book points out that the collective cost of nuclear energy production is not economical, which is unfounded. Even under favorable assumptions for wind and solar energy plants, such as an increase in capacity factor, it is shown that the total net benefits of a nuclear plant (at $804,763 per MW per year) clearly outweighs wind plant (at $283,311 per MW per year) and solar plant (at $113,349 per MW per year).6 This implies that the benefits a nuclear plant derived from reducing carbon emissions and having a high capacity factor clearly outweighs the insurance and operating costs of a nuclear

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