Review
Nuclear energy: Between global electricity demand, worldwide decarbonisation imperativeness, and planetary environmental implications

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.12.043Get rights and content

Highlights

  • A review of the tridimensional viability (energetical, climatic, environmental) of nuclear energy was conducted.

  • Energetically, nuclear power is still an important pillar of global energy security.

  • Climatically, nuclear power can be a viable pathway towards the decarbonization of the world's major economies.

  • Environmentally, nuclear energy is a double threat due to possible nuclear accidents and highly radioactive waste.

  • This trilema fuels the highly controversial nature of nuclear energy in today's society.

Abstract

For decades, nuclear energy has been considered an important option for ensuring global energy security, and it has recently started being promoted as a solution for climate change mitigation. However, nuclear power remains highly controversial due to its associated risks – nuclear accidents and problematic radioactive waste management. This review aims to assess the viability of global nuclear energy economically (energy-wise), climatically and environmentally. To this end, the nuclear sector's energy- and climate-related advantages were explored alongside the downsides that mainly relate to radioactive pollution. Economically, it was found that nuclear energy is still an important power source in many countries around the world. Climatically, nuclear power is a low-carbon technology and can therefore be a viable option for the decarbonization of the world's major economies over the following decades, if coupled with other large-scale strategies such as renewable energies. These benefits are however outweighed by the radioactive danger associated to nuclear power plants, either in the context of the nuclear accidents that have already occurred or in that of the large amounts of long-lived nuclear waste that have been growing for decades and that represent a significant environmental and societal threat.

Introduction

Nuclear energy is currently an important component of energy security and global economic development. It is one of the pillars of the world's energy needs, considering that in 2013 it covered 11% of global electricity, or 2477 TWh (terawatts hour) of the total 2013 world energy production estimated at 23234 TWh (IEA, 2015). Nuclear power is therefore a viable power source given the increasing global energy demand, its high power supply capacity and the low fuel levels required for operation (Grandin et al., 2010).

Moreover, alongside renewable energy, nuclear energy is seen as a major opportunity for the decarbonization of global economies due to the fact that it is a low-carbon technology (NEA, 2015a). These technologies are essential, as today's society still largely (∼80%) relies on fossil fuels, and fossil resources are projected to cover 50% of the total global energy supply up to 2050 (Don MacElroy, 2016). This large dominance of fossil fuels in the global energy sector has generated significant pressure onto the Earth's natural systems especially over the past five decades (1959–2010), during which it is estimated that 350 Gt C (gigatonnes or billion tonnes carbon) were released into the atmosphere (290 Gt C from fossil fuels and 60 Gt C from land use changes), of which 45% remained in the atmosphere (the other 55% was assimilated by the ocean and land areas), causing an accelerated climate warming (Ballantyne et al., 2012).

At present, more attention is being directed towards the relationship between nuclear energy and climate change (Verbruggen and Laes, 2015), considering that the climate system's perturbation is probably the most serious environmental problem in the world today (Rockström et al., 2009). Thus, it was suggested that this type of energy could be a major opportunity to improve some of these disturbances, by means of decarbonization and by stopping global warming at 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, which is the limit deemed necessary to ensure the stability of the Earth's biophysical systems (Fawcett et al., 2015). However, the condition for generating a clear effect on the decrease of atmospheric carbon is using the technology until 2050 in a mixed context, i.e. coupled with large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) and renewable technologies (NEA, 2015b). Therefore, even though a 17% increase in nuclear energy use is envisaged by 2050 (NEA, 2015b), without the simultaneous use of other viable strategies for eliminating atmospheric CO2 emissions there can be no real chance of reducing global warming.

There is however a notable downside to nuclear energy – safety issues and the radioactive waste it generates. Even though it is known that nuclear power plants are safe systems, which have several built-in physical barriers conceived to prevent the escape of radioactive isotopes into the environment (Högberg, 2013), the past decades have shown that nuclear accidents can happen. Such instances include the well-known Chernobyl (1986) and Fukushima Daiichi (2011) events that released high amounts of radioactive isotopes into the environment, such as 137Cs and 131I (IAEA, 2012, UNSCEAR, 2008, UNSCEAR, 2013). Additionally, other risks can be associated to nuclear waste, which is highly radioactive and not easily storable safely and permanently. High-level radioactive waste is the most dangerous type, as it persists in the environment for up to one hundred thousand years (Horvath and Rachlew, 2016), which makes safe storage almost impossible.

Fortunately, nuclear waste management is rigorously regulated and controlled by the International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA (and by other international organizations), the most important international entity that oversees nuclear activity globally (IAEA, 2006). In addition to the safety of radioactive waste storage facilities, this organization is also responsible for the cooperation between member states for nuclear development, and one of its primary roles is preventing the use of nuclear programs for military purposes (Prăvălie, 2014). Thus, IAEA was the main mechanism involved in the implementation of the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty, which was aimed at stemming the spread of military nuclear technology worldwide, except for five countries (United States, USSR/Russia, United Kingdom, France, and China) that were already nuclear powers at the time (Prăvălie, 2014).

This study aims to analyze the current state of global nuclear energy from three different angles – energetically, climatically and environmentally. This review paper, based on current relevant bibliographical sources and representative data, essentially aims to simultaneously assess the positive (energy security and support in fighting climate change) and negative (the risk of accidents and environment-related risks of spent nuclear fuel storage) effects of nuclear energy.

Section snippets

Past evolution of nuclear energy

The use of nuclear energy started in the early 50s, when the first nuclear reactor (a small unit called Experimental Breeder Reactor I) became operational at the Argonne National Laboratory in Idaho, United States. In the following years, the US, UK, Russia, France and Germany were the first to use nuclear technology commercially, and 20 other countries followed suit over the next decades (NEA, 2003). However, even though US president Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his famous “Atoms for Peace” UN

Current and future statuses of nuclear development in the world

According to the IAEA's Power Reactor Information System (PRIS), one of the most comprehensive and credible platforms in terms of statistical information on nuclear power plants worldwide (IAEA, 2005a), in 2015 there were 30 UN member states that used nuclear energy commercially (∼16% of 193), or 31 countries, if also considering Taiwan, a partially recognized state (Fig. 2). Of these nuclear power countries, more than half are in Europe (Fig. 2), which reflects the fact that this continent has

Decarbonisation potential in the global energy system

It was suggested that nuclear energy had considerably diminished the acceleration of global climate warming recorded in the past four decades, as its use prevented the release of over 60 billion tons CO2 after 1970 (IAEA, 2016a, IAEA, 2016b). It is currently estimated that nuclear power is preventing the annual release of 1.2–2.4 Gt CO2 emissions globally, assuming that, without this technology, more than 2400 TWh worth of nuclear power would be produced by natural gas combustion (which, on

Radioactive contamination. A major environmental issue of nuclear energy

Even though nuclear energy is considered to be beneficial for human society economically and, more recently, climatically, one of its major disadvantages with global-scale implications must be noted – the risk of environmental radioactive pollution (contamination). This risk can be approached in terms of two key facets: the threat of nuclear reactor accidents and the danger associated to nuclear waste management (the risk associated with nuclear weapons testing is not included in this review

International nuclear energy policies

For decades, the nuclear energy sector has been under the aegis of various international initiatives that focus on industrial development and safety of use issues. Additionally, nuclear energy has lately been a topic of interest for international policies that outline major strategies for fighting climate change (NEA, 2015a, NEA, 2015b), as it is considered to be a viable option for the decarbonization of the global energy system, alongside decreasing fossil fuel use, increasing energy

Conclusions

As nuclear energy is highly controversial in today's society, it is important to analyze the role it plays for humanity in a multi-dimensional manner. Such an assessment is however difficult due to the complexity of the three dimensions of nuclear power this paper tackles – economic, climatic and environmental. The nuclear sector's role in global socio-economic development is currently uncertain, as its energetic and climatic advantages are outweighed by the disadvantages associated to

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