NEI News: Nuclear Energy Plays Important Role in Clean Air Act That Marks 40 Years of Progress

Nuclear Energy Plays Important Role in Clean Air Act That Marks 40 Years of Progress
The 40th anniversary of the Clean Air Act underscores the importance of nuclear energy in meeting the nation's environmental goals. Signed by President Richard Nixon on Dec. 31, 1970, the act has improved the quality of the air in most U.S. cities and communities. Nuclear energy plants don't burn anything, so they produce no combustion byproducts. Last year, U.S. reactors prevented the emission of 2 million tons of sulfur dioxide, a precursor of acid rain, and 560,000 tons of nitrogen oxide, a key component of ground-level ozone and smog. (Put another way, U.S. emissions of SO₂ and NOx would have been 2 million tons and 560,000 tons higher, respectively, if fossil fuels had generated the electricity produced by America's 104 nuclear power plants.) In comparison, that same year, the U.S. electric sector emitted 5.8 million tons of SO₂ and 2 million tons of NOx. In 2009, nuclear plants also prevented the emission of 647 million tons of carbon dioxide and thousands of tons of fine particulates.