Quick references



Advantages of nuclear


Find out more about the advantages of nuclear power in Ireland:

Nuclear is the cheapest

Nuclear is the cleanest

Nuclear power is the safest electricity

New nuclear power is ideal for Ireland


Supporters of nuclear in Ireland

Many Irish organisations have called for nuclear power to be considered here. (These links to external sites open in a new window).

ESB

EirGrid

Forfas

Irish Academy of Engineering

ICTU

IBEC


Political supporters of a debate


Calls for a national nuclear debate have come from (external sites open in a new window):

Minister for Energy, Eamon Ryan

Dáil Joint C’tee on Climate Change


Exploded myths about nuclear


These facts may surprise you:

Reactors would fit the Irish grid

There is a solution for nuclear waste

We can afford nuclear power

Nuclear fuel is plentiful


Other information


General items of interest about nuclear:

Types of reactors

History of nuclear power

IRIS - a suitable reactor for Ireland

Nuclear power is illegal in Ireland

Can we not just use Renewables?

Nuclear Power is the cleanest source of bulk power available today. A number of national and international studies bear this out, and three of these are presented below.

Irish view:

EirGrid commissioned a study into low-carbon options for Ireland. The study, conducted by the international consultant Poyry, showed that nuclear power was one of the best technologies in enabling us to reduce our Carbon Dioxide emissions. The CO2 from imports (the light blue portion of the graph below) arises predominantly due to the high levels of wind generation that is also assumed to be constructed in Ireland. The portfolio of generating plant that included nuclear power resulted in lower CO2 emissions than even some of the High-Renewables portfolios.

UK view:

UK study in 2006 estimated the range of carbon footprints for various ‘low-carbon’ power generation technologies. The technologies studied included biomass, photovoltaic, hydro, marine, wind and nuclear power.


The study showed that nuclear power had the lowest footprint of any technology.


However, all the technologies shown on the chart have emissions that are considerably lower than the best of the fossil-based electricity generators. It is likely that a combination of all the technologies will be required to satisfy our future energy needs in a sustainable manner.

OECD view:

Nuclear is the cleanest per unit of electricity produced over its life cycle, taking into account everything from mining ore to decommissioning and disposal of waste. The figures of grams of carbon dioxide per kWh produced have been broadly confirmed by the OECD. They are as in the table on the right

Note that this table shows the total CO2 from the generating plant in each of six different portfolios, which include the technologies mentioned. This means that the portfolio includes the technology mentioned but there are many other elements to the portfolio.

For instance, the Nuclear portfolio includes 2200 MW of nuclear in addition to over 8000 MW of renewables and 3500 MW of gas.

Most of the emissions from the Nuclear portfolio (dark blue bar) comes from the gas plant reacting to variations in the output of the renewable generators. Almost all the CO2 liability from imports (light blue bar) is also attributed to variations in the output of the renewable generators.

The direct emissions from Nuclear and Renewables are near-zero, as explained here.

So, all the reliable studies confirm that nuclear is a genuine low-carbon energy source, many times cleaner than gas, oil or coal.

2011 review of many reports:


A review of many reports from different sources including Governments and Universities shows great consistency between the studies. Nuclear and standard renewables are all an order of magnitude lower in emissions than fossil fuel generation.

 

In other words, nuclear is cleaner than wind and other renewables, 100 times cleaner than gas, and 270 times cleaner than coal.