Nuclear Energy & CO2

 

   The International Nuclear Forum
Nuclear Energy & CO2		  
 

Information from: Nuclear Energy’s Clean Air Benefits on a Worldwide Scale, Nuclear Energy Institute, November 1997

Nuclear energy today accounts for about 7% of world primary energy and 17% of world electricity, avoiding the emission of about 2 billion t CO2 annually.


Nuclear energy reduced utility emissions of carbon dioxide by 32% in 1995

In 1995, electric utilities’ emissions of carbon dioxide world-wide were 32 percent lower than they would have been if fossil fuels had been used instead of nuclear energy. Emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide were 35 and 31 percent lower, respectively.

Since 1973, nuclear energy has been the most important factor in preventing electric utility carbon dioxide emissions.

All values of carbon dioxide emissions in these web pages are expressed in terms of metric tons of carbon weight. This is the measurement unit used in international discussions to quantify reduction in each nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. If expressed in (short) tons of carbon dioxide (i.e. molecular weight), the carbon dioxide emissions values in this report would be about four times greater.

  • From 1973-95, nuclear energy enabled utilities to prevent the cumulative emission of well over six billion metric tons of carbon.
  • In 1995, nuclear energy prevented the emission of 482 million metric tons of carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide. (This is the additional amount that fossil-fuelled plants would have emitted if there had been no nuclear plants.

Nuclear power plants also have prevented sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions:

  • In 1995, nuclear energy prevented the emission of 15 million tons of sulphur dioxide from fossil-fuelled plants. This represents 35 percent of electric utility sulphur dioxide emissions in 1995 by the countries considered in this report.
  • In 1995, nuclear plants avoided the discharge of 8.7 million tons of nitrogen oxide. This offset represents 34 percent of electric utility emissions today by the countries considered in this report.
  • From 1973-95, nuclear plants prevented the emission of 219 million tons of sulphur dioxide and 98 million tons of nitrogen oxides.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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