Hansen, 2013: Options for near-term phaseout of CO2 emissions from coal use in the United States. Kharecha, P.A., C.F. We conclude that nuclear energy — despite posing several challenges, as do all energy sources (ref.

It is also notable that the Clean Air Act is one of the most life-saving pieces of legislation ever adopted by any country in history, along with the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) which established the 40 hour week, and Medicare in 1965. Tiananmen Square Source: NREL, Simon Tsuo. Human-caused climate change and air pollution remain major global-scale problems and are both due mostly to fossil fuel burning. Hansen, and E. Mazria, 2010: Hydro is dominated by a few rare large dam failures like Banqiao in … 1). Likewise, we calculated that nuclear power prevented an average of 64 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent (GtCO2-eq) net GHG emissions globally between 1971-2009 (see Fig. Boden, T. A., G. Marland, R.J. Andres, 2012: But an energy’s deathprint, as it is called, is rarely discussed. Dr. Pushker Kharecha. 1), we provide an objective, long-term, quantitative analysis of the effects of nuclear power on human health (mortality) and the environment (climate). The table below lists the mortality rate of each energy source as deaths per trillion kWhrs produced. Ranges not shown but are a factor of ~4 higher and lower than the mean values. J. Scott et al., The Clean Air Act at 35, Environmental Defense, New York, www.environmentaldefense.org. The dozen or so U.S. deaths in nuclear over the last 60 years have mostly been in the weapons complex or are modeled from general LNT effects.
These additional health costs begin to rival the total energy costs on an annual basis for the U.S. given that health care costs top $2.6 trillion, and electricity costs only exceed about $400 billion.

For over 25 years I have been a member of Sierra Club, Greenpeace, the NRDC, the Environmental Defense Fund and many others, as well as professional societies including the America Nuclear Society, the American Chemical Society, the Geological Society of America and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
Our lungs just don’t like burnt carbonaceous particulates, whether from coal or wood or manure or pellets or cigarettes. Prevented mortality and greenhouse gas emissions from historical and projected nuclear power. Cumulative net GHG emissions prevented assuming nuclear power replaces fossil fuels. Hydro is dominated by a few rare large dam failures like Banqiao in China in 1976 which killed about 171,000 people.

4). 5. We calculate that this nuclear phaseout scenario leads to an average of 420,000-7 million deaths and 80-240 GtCO2-eq emissions globally (the high-end values reflect the all coal case; see Figs. Carbon emissions and physical footprints are known as externalities and are those vague someone-has-to-pay-eventually kind of thing it's hard to put a value on. Technol., 47, 4889-4895, doi:10.1021/es3051197. Global, Regional, and National Fossil-Fuel CO2 Emissions. Scientific prescription to avoid dangerous climate change to protect young people, future generations, and nature. Mitigation efforts for both of these problems should be undertaken concurrently in order to maximize effectiveness. Sato, V. Masson-Delmotte, et al., 2013: This database contains 2497 known Nova Scotia coal mining fatalities. 7) — needs to be retained and significantly expanded in order to avoid or minimize the devastating impacts of unabated climate change and air pollution caused by fossil fuel burning. The World Health Organization and other sources attribute about 1 million deaths/year to coal air pollution. Environ. Figure 2. I have been a scientist in the field of the earth and environmental sciences for 33 years, specializing in geologic disposal of nuclear waste, energy-related research, planetary surface processes, radiobiology and shielding for space colonies, subsurface transport and environmental clean-up of heavy metals. Council, Wash., D.C. ISBN: 0-309-14641-0 (2010). Also, such fuel switching is practically guaranteed to worsen the climate problem for several reasons. Available at Another way to describe this human health energy fee is that it costs about 2,000 lives per year to keep the lights on in Beijing but only about 200 lives to keep them on in New York. 1 and 3). 1, except that mean values for both the all coal and all gas cases are labeled. A. J. Cohen et al., The global burden of disease due to outdoor air pollution, Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A, 68: 1301-1307 (2005). Alabama, Montana and Pennsylvania each had one coal mining death. Available at http://www.globalenergyassessment.org. FSU15=15 countries of the Former Soviet Union and OECD=Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. 6). P. Bickel and R. Friedrich, Externalities of Energy, European Union Report EUR 21951, Luxembourg (2005). All new builds must be GenIII and higher, with passive redundant safety systems, and all must be able to withstand the worst case disaster, no matter how unlikely. 4. International Atomic Energy Agency, 2011: 3. http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/RDS1_31.pdf. The larger columns in panels (b) and (c) reflect the all-coal case and are labeled with their mean values, while the smaller columns reflect the all-gas case; values for the latter are not shown because they are all simply a factor of about 10 lower (reflecting the order-of-magnitude difference between the mortality factors for coal and gas). For perspective, the atmosphere currently contains ~830 GtC, of which ~200 GtC are from industrial-era fossil fuel burning. I write about nuclear, energy and the environment, the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) which established the 40 hour week, and Medicare in 1965, the last fifteen years. Worldwide, there are around 340 million occupational accidents and 160 million victims of work-related illnesses annually. Environ. IAEA Reference Data Series 1/31. The largest uncertainties and limitations of our analysis stem from the assumed values for impacts per unit electric energy produced. The top panel (a) shows results for the historical period in our study (1971-2009), with mean values (labeled) and ranges for the baseline historical scenario. This amounts to at least hundreds and more likely thousands of times more deaths than it caused.