Have you noticed that the lead energy source in the effort to halt climate change is not natural gas, but rather nuclear power? That's the case not just in America but also in much of the rest of the world. It's one of the most positive environmental developments around.
Nuclear power accounts for about 20 percent of U.S. electricity production but more than 70 percent of the nation's carbon-free power. Though natural gas has 60 percent less carbon than coal, and is highly regarded as a clean-energy source for fuel switching, the fact is that natural gas power plants load the atmosphere with huge amounts of carbon dioxide. Nuclear power plants, by contrast, don't pollute the air or emit any carbon dioxide.
Nuclear power's environmental edge over competing energy sources is the key to understanding its continuing importance in the United States and in the world. Although there hasn't been a groundbreaking for a new U.S. nuclear plant since 1974, nuclear power still has the same share of the nation's total electricity production that it had more than 20 years ago. And it managed to hold on even as the demand for electricity continued to grow.
What made this remarkable achievement possible are two things:
The greatly improved performance of nuclear plants is reflected by the jump in the average capacity factor of U.S. reactors from 60 percent in 1980 to 90 percent over the past decade.
Florida's five reactors - Crystal River, and the twin units at both St. Lucie and Turkey Point - over the past three years have generated electricity about 90 percent of the time, avoiding the emission of 19 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2009 alone. More at: http://www.theledger.com/article/20101112/COLUMNISTS/11125003/1001/business?p=1&tc=pg
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