"Nuclear power: wrong answer" posted by Meaders

As a follow-on, and because if there’s one myth about nuclear power that needs nailing at the moment, it’s the idea that it’s emission-free:

A complete life-cycle analysis shows that generating electricity from nuclear power emits 20-40% of the carbon dioxide per kiloWatt hour ( kWh) of a gas-fired system when the whole system is taken into account (see Nuclear Power: the Energy Balance by Jan-Willem Storm van Leeuwen and Philip Smith).

The nuclear process chain also emits other greenhouse gases besides carbon dioxide with far stronger global-warming potential such as chloro- and fluorohydrocarbons and probably SF6. These emissions are difficult to quantify from the open literature, but the total emission of carbon dioxide equivalents by a nuclear system will be significantly more than 20-40% of a gas-fired system with the same energy output.

Only under a system that targeted carbon ahead of other greenhouse gases would nuclear power appear remotely “environmentally friendly”. (Even then, the reduction is only two-thirds compared to gas use: not nearly enough, assuming nuclear power could come onstream tomorrow, to meet Britain’s carbon targets.) Once all gas outputs from nuclear power are taken account, there is simply no way it can be considered a credible, “environmentally-friendly” alternative.