Nuclear Power Must Make a Comeback for Climate Sake

Climate Change, Anthropocene, & Associated Issues

Date posted: 12/10/15

Gayathri Vaidyanathan blogs that James Hansen, former NASA climate scientist, and three other prominent climate scientists are calling for an enlarged focus on nuclear energy in the ongoing Paris climate negotiations. Nuclear, especially next-generation nuclear, has tremendous potential to be part of the solution to climate change, Hansen said during a panel discussion yesterday. The dangers of fossil fuels are staring us in the face. So for us to say we will not use all the tools [such as nuclear energy] to solve the problem is crazy, he said. He was joined by Tom Wigley, a climate scientist at the University of Adelaide, by Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science, and by Kerry Emanuel, a professor of atmospheric science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Their stance clashes with those of environmental (aka adversarial) groups such as Greenpeace that are paid to advocate against nuclear energy. As nations have proposed emissions curbs in Paris up to 2030, scientists have computed that there is a 1-in-2 (50%) chance that their collective ambition would raise temperatures in 2100 by between 2.7 to 3.7 degrees Celsius. Nations would like to limit temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius, and stabilize atmospheric carbon dioxide levels at 450 parts per million (ppm). There is 400 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere at present. So scientists have now turned their attention to what would be needed after 2030 to meet a 2 degrees C goal ... an energy system transformation that emits less carbon. For this, all technology options need to be on the table, including nuclear, the scientists said. At present, there is a worrisome groundswell of opinion that renewable energy is sufficient to hit that target, Wigley of the University of Adelaide said. He is the owner of a zero-asset company, South Australian Nuclear Energy Systems, that educates people on the technology but is not involved with the nuclear industry.