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Carbon-impacts of the Columbia Generating Station (WPPSS Nuclear Plant 2)

The Hoax That Nuclear Power Is Green At 17:24 minutes into this video: Nuclear power produces the equivalent of seven grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour; mining and refining uranium produces another 20-30 grams per kWh. That comes to about 30-40 grams per kWh, compared to less than 10 for wind power (construction) - and around 1100 for coal, and around half that for natural gas. Of course, to build a nuclear plant would contribute more CO2, though that is not likely to be happening anymore.
Conference on Financial and Environmental Dangers of NY's $7.6 billion Nuclear Bailout, and Soaring Cancer Rates Near Nuclear Reactors. Organized by Radiation and Public Health Project. (30-minute video by Karl Grossman, EnviroVideo) July 2019

The 7 reasons nuclear energy is not the answer to solve climate change
#6:
Carbon-equivalent emissions and air pollution
* There is no such thing as a zero- or close-to-zero emission nuclear power plant. Even existing plants emit due to the continuous mining and refining of uranium needed for the plant.
* Emissions from new nuclear are 78 to 178 g-CO2/kWh, not close to 0. Of this, 64 to 102 g-CO2/kWh over 100 years are emissions from the background grid while consumers wait 10 to 19 years for nuclear to come online or be refurbished, relative to 2 to 5 years for wind or solar.
In addition, all nuclear plants emit 4.4 g-CO2e/kWh from the water vapor and heat they release. This contrasts with solar panels and wind turbines, which reduce heat or water vapor fluxes to the air by about 2.2 g-CO2e/kWh for a net difference from this factor alone of 6.6 g-CO2e/kWh.
* In fact, China’s investment in nuclear plants that take so long between planning and operation instead of wind or solar resulted in China’s CO2 emissions increasing 1.3 percent from 2016 to 2017 rather than declining by an estimated average of 3 percent. The resulting difference in air pollution emissions may have caused 69,000 additional air pollution deaths in China in 2016 alone, with additional deaths in years prior and since. 

By Professor Mark Z. Jacobson, Stanford University, June 20, 2019

Government Report Shows that Nuclear Uranium Deal was Illegal The Energy Northwest uranium deal was brokered to keep the Paducah enrichment plant open. It also takes eight coal-fired power plants running full time to keep the Paducah plant operating. This is part of the carbon footprint of the Columbia Generating Station (WPPSS-2). By Leslie March, Sierra Club, June 13, 2014

Kentucky Fried Politics - the story of how two U.S. Senators, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and tea party advocate Rand Paul, teamed up to scam ratepayers in the Northwest by forcing Energy Northwest, an electricity supplier to the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), to pay $700 million for enriched uranium–that BPA didn’t even need–that could have been purchased on the open market for $450 million.
The Paducah uranium enrichment plant that benefited from this deal is a huge contributor of global-warming gases to the atmosphere. By David Cay Johnston, Newsweek, January 23, 2014
Commentary on the article here

New Report: Ratepayers Could Save $1.7 Billion if Aging Nuclear Plant at Hanford is Closed The full report also states that although the plant is considered “carbon free,” its owner, Energy Northwest (formerly WPPSS), purchased nuclear fuel worth $700 million from a now-closed fuel enrichment plant in Paducah, Kentucky. “The dirty carbon footprint of nuclear power is not as well known as it should be,” notes Susan Corbett, chair of the Sierra Club Nuclear Free Campaign. “The fact that Energy Northwest served as the broker to run the dirty Paducah nuclear fuel plant for an additional year is a black eye for them and the industry as a whole.”  Physicians for Social Responsibility, December 11, 2013
 
 


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