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Growing Significance of Clean-Air Benefits
Clean-air energy sources—nuclear power plants, hydroelectric power and renewables—help minimize the production of greenhouse gases and pollutants because they generate electricity that otherwise would have to come from burning fossil fuels. The more electricity each source generates, the more it helps meet the nation’s clean-air goals. Nuclear energy is by far the largest of the clean-air sources, producing nearly 20 percent of our nation’s total electricity. Hydroelectric power provides 7 percent of our nation’s electricity; renewables, 3 percent. Thus, 30 percent of U.S. electricity comes from clean-air sources, and nuclear energy provides two-thirds of that.

The electricity produced by nuclear power plants displaces electricity that otherwise would be supplied by oil-, gas- or coal-fired generating capacity. Hence, nuclear energy plays a vital role in our national air-quality compliance programs.

In 2007, nuclear power plants prevented the emission of about 3.1 million tons of sulfur dioxide and 1 million tons of smog-causing nitrogen oxide—pollutants controlled by the Clean Air Act.

Nuclear plants also prevented the discharge of 681 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2006. This amount equals the carbon dioxide released from nearly all U.S. passenger cars.

In 2005, a Polestar Applied Technology study, commissioned by the Nuclear Energy Institute, concluded that the nine northeastern states cooperating on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative would be incapable of meeting their ambitious goals to cap carbon emissions without the help of the region’s 15 nuclear power plants. Without those plants, the region would be forced to generate about 50 percent of its electricity from natural gas in order to meet its carbon-cap goals.

The environmental benefits of nuclear energy are gaining greater recognition. In recent years, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the Earth Institute at New York’s Columbia University have released studies advocating expanded use of nuclear energy to combat global climate change.

Some environmentalists also advocate the expanded use of nuclear power to meet our planet’s energy needs while protecting our environment.

In September 2007, Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore said, “A more diverse mix of voices are taking a positive second look at nuclear energy—environmentalists, scientists, the media, prominent Republicans and Democrats, and progressive think tanks. They are all coming to a similar conclusion: If we are to meet the growing electricity needs in this country and also address global climate change, nuclear energy has a crucial role to play.”

British scientist James Lovelock, a leading international environmentalist, reiterated his support for nuclear energy in his 2006 book, “The Revenge of Gaia.” He wrote, “There is no alternative but nuclear fission until fusion energy and sensible forms of renewable energy arrive as truly long-term providers. Nuclear energy is free of emissions and independent of imports from what will be a disturbed world.”

Counterculture icon Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, called for a reassessment of America’s use of nuclear energy. “The only technology ready to fill the gap and stop carbon dioxide loading of the atmosphere is nuclear power,” Brand wrote in the May 2005 MIT Technology Review.

Future Challenge: Linking Energy, Environmental Policy
Looking to the future, the United States must maintain at least the current 30 percent share of non-emitting electric generating capacity if it is to meet its clean-air goals. Even with conservative assumptions about increases in electricity demand and assuming a doubling of renewable energy production, the United States will be challenged to maintain the current proportion of emission-free electricity production without a substantial increase in nuclear energy.

Comprehensive energy policy legislation enacted in 2005 provides limited incentives to jump-start new reactor construction, just as similar legislation has done for wind and other power technologies. These include loan guarantees for clean energy technologies, including nuclear and renewables; production tax credits (1.8 cents per kilowatt-hour) for the first 6,000 mega-watts of new advanced reactors; and federal insurance that would protect a company building a new plant in the event of unforeseen regulatory delays.

The bill also authorizes almost $3 billion for nuclear energy research, including funding for a new demonstration hydrogen reactor, as well as hydrogen demonstration projects at existing reactors.

The nuclear energy industry has partnered with DOE to design, license and build the next generation of nuclear energy technology. As part of this partnership, companies are testing an improved U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission process for licensing new nuclear plants. Companies also are testing an early site permit process, which allows a company to gain advance approval for a new reactor site so the location is ready when and if a company decides to build.

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