Two publications by Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) were quoted by the Guardian in an article discussing the deficiencies of Obama’s climate policy plan.
From Tech Today.
Obama’s fracked-up climate strategy will guarantee global warming disaster
What about nuclear power? A 2008 study in the International Journal of Nuclear Governance, Economy and Ecology pointed out that the construction, mining, milling, transporting, refining, enrichment, waste reprocessing/disposal, fabrication, operation and decommissioning processes of nuclear power all release fossil fuel emissions. Also, nuclear power is not efficient enough to replace oil, gas and coal. To do so nuclear production would need to increase by 10.5 per cent every year from 2010 to 2050 – an “unsustainable prospect” requiring a “cannibalistic effect”, whereby nuclear energy itself must be used to supply the energy for future nuclear power plants.
Study author Dr. Joshua Pearce further argued last year that unless nuclear power adopts “improved technology and efficiency through the entire life cycle to prevent energy cannibalism during rapid growth”, the industry could “face obsolescence” compared to renewables.
Read more at The Guardian, by Nafeez Ahmed.