| |
Switch that could end nuclear power worries
• DR Harry G Moss says that in nuclear power stations “for every gigawatt of power produced, about 195 gigawatts of power go into directly heating the environment” (Nuclear switch-off, November 7).
Where does Dr Moss get his data? Both those in favour of nuclear power and those not enthusiastic about it agree that “for every three units of thermal energy generated by the reactor core, one unit of electrical energy goes out to the grid and two units of waste heat go into the environment”.
This comes from the US Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), not enthusiastic about nuclear power, which says (20071204-ucs-brief-got-water.pdf): “Both types of [pressurised water and boiling water] nuclear power reactors are about 33 per cent efficient.”
According to the World Nuclear Association website (www.world-nuclear.org/info/cooling_power_plants_inf121.html): “Nuclear plants now being built have about 34-36 per cent thermal efficiency, depending on site (especially water temperature). Older ones are often only 32-33 per cent efficient.” This, coming from an industry source, amounts to much the same as the UCS statement.
The figures for gas and coal-fired plants are not significantly different.
Nuclear power plants certainly have their problems (see the UCS website for details), but contributing significantly to global warming is not one of them. Most of the other problems can be solved by switching from uranium to thorium (see the World Nuclear Association website for more).
Let us hope that Barack Obama will be persuaded of this.
Felix Pirani
Tavistock Street, WC2
|
 |
|
|
| |
| |
| |
