Less Nuclear, More Carbon 

Dominion Resources tried to sell its Kewaunee nuclear plant in Wisconsin but couldn’t find any buyers, so they’re shutting the plant down (Reuters, New York Times). Bahrain is backing away from its nuclear power plans. One of the likely factors in both actions is the low cost of natural gas.

Nuclear power advocates have long agreed that nuclear power plants are expensive to build, but then, they say, the cost of operation is very low because of the concentrated energy in the fuel. The boom in natural gas from fracking makes operating a natural gas power plant even lower than that.

But what about global warming? Although natural gas is less awful than coal in its carbon dioxide output, that greenhouse gas is the result of its burning. Replacing low-carbon nuclear power with natural gas is the wrong direction to be going, even if it makes economic sense in the short term.http://www.nucleardiner.com/archive/item/less-nuclear-more-carbon