this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024
351 points (85.2% liked)

Memes

45641 readers
1821 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

Do they actually produce as much CO2 as carbon plants? Do you have a source for that claim?

In terms of nuclear waste storage, the IAEA claims 390,000 tonnes were generated between 1954 and 2016, and a third has been recycled.

The US EPA claims the US generated 6,340 million metric tons of CO2, and 25% were for the electric power economic sector.

The nuclear waste is stored on site, but I imagine carbon waste is stored mostly in our atmosphere...

The narrative I have heard is that nuclear energy waste is much more manageable than fossil fuel waste, but if nuclear energy has emissions or scaling problems I'm not aware of, I'd be happy to revise my preconceptions about it.