page_title: Nuclear power debate
section_title: Effect on greenhouse gas emissions
hierarchical_section_title: Nuclear power debate / Environmental effects / Effect on greenhouse gas emissions
caption_attribution_description: English: Mean value of nuclear power greenhouse gas emissions based on 2008 Sovacool study. The study was a survey of 103 life cycle studies of greenhouse gas equivalent emissions for nuclear power plants to identify a subset of the most current, original, and transparent studies. It includes the 1997 Vattenfall study.
context_page_description: The nuclear power debate is a long-running controversy about the risks and benefits of using nuclear reactors to generate electricity for civilian purposes. The debate about nuclear power peaked during the 1970s and 1980s, as more and more reactors were built and came online, and "reached an intensity unprecedented in the history of technology controversies" in some countries. Thereafter, the nuclear industry created jobs, focused on safety, and public concerns mostly waned. In the last decade, however, with growing public awareness about climate change and the critical role that carbon dioxide and methane emissions plays in causing the heating of the earth's atmosphere, there has been a resurgence in the intensity of the nuclear power debate. Nuclear power advocates and those most concerned about climate change point to nuclear power's reliable, emission-free, high-density energy, alongside a generation of young physicists and engineers working to bring a new generation of nuclear technology into existence to replace fossil fuels.
context_section_description: An average nuclear power plant prevents emission of 2'000'000 metric tons of CO₂, 5'200 metric tons of SO₂ and 2'200 metric tons of NOₓ in a year as compared to an average fossil fuel plant.
  While nuclear power does not directly emit greenhouse gases, emissions occur, as with every source of energy, over a facility's life cycle: mining and fabrication of construction materials, plant construction, operation, uranium mining and milling, and plant decommissioning.
  A literature survey by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of 32 greenhouse gas emissions studies, found a median value of 16 g (0.56 oz) equivalent lifecycle carbon dioxide emissions per kilowatt hour (kWh) for nuclear power, being one of the lowest among all energy sources and comparable only with wind power.
  
  Climate and energy scientists James Hansen, Ken Caldeira, Kerry Emanuel and Tom Wigley have released an open letter stating, in part, that 
  Renewables like wind and solar and biomass will certainly play roles in a future energy economy, but those energy sources cannot scale up fast enough to deliver cheap and reliable power at the scale the global economy requires. While it may be theoretically possible to stabilize the climate without nuclear power, in the real world there is no credible path to climate stabilization that does not include a substantial role for nuclear power.
  This position has been disputed based on high cost and potential for nuclear weapons proliferation. James Hansen and a colleague subsequently wrote a counter-rebuttal. It has been also postulated that the  life-cycle CO₂ emissions of nuclear power high-grade uranium ore is used up and low-grade uranium needs to be mined and milled using fossil fuels.
  As the nuclear power debate continues, greenhouse gas emissions are increasing. Predictions estimate that even with draconian emission reductions within the ten years, the world will still pass 650 ppm of carbon dioxide and a catastrophic 4 °C (7.2 °F) average rise in temperature. Public perception is that renewable energies such as wind, solar, biomass and geothermal are significantly affecting global warming. All of these sources combined only supplied 1.3% of global energy in 2013 as 8 billion tonnes (1.8×10¹³ lb) of coal was burned annually. This "too little, too late" effort may be a mass form of climate change denial, or an idealistic pursuit of green energy.
  In response to 2016 Paris Agreement a number of countries explicitly listed nuclear power as part of their commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In June 2019, an open letter to "the leadership and people of Germany", written by almost 100 Polish environmentalists and scientist, urged Germany to "reconsider the decision on the final decommissioning of fully functional nuclear power plants" for the benefit of the fight against global warming.
  In 2020 a group of European scientists published an open letter to the European Commission calling for inclusion of nuclear power as "element of stability in carbon-free Europe". Also in 2020 a coalition of 30 European nuclear industry companies and research bodies published an open letter highlighting that nuclear power remains the largest single source of zero-emissions energy in European Union.
caption: According to Sovacool, nuclear power plants produce electricity with about 66 g (2.3 oz) equivalent lifecycle carbon dioxide emissions per kWh, while renewable power generators produce electricity with 9.5–38 g (0.34–1.34 oz) carbon dioxide per kWh.[112] A 2012 study by Yale University disputed this estimate, and found that the mean value from nuclear power ranged from 11–25 g/kWh (0.11–0.24 oz/MJ) of total life cycle CO2 emissions[113]
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