IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v290y2021ics0306261921002555.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The greenhouse gas emissions of nuclear energy – Life cycle assessment of a European pressurised reactor

Author

Listed:
  • Pomponi, Francesco
  • Hart, Jim

Abstract

Nuclear energy contributes ~10% of the global electricity generation and different views exist on its carbon-intensity and sustainability. Context is crucial to determine the sustainability of new nuclear power generators, making the existence of a global answer to the unresolved question unlikely. This study aims to establish the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions associated with nuclear energy in Europe given ongoing construction of nuclear generators. Due to the high uncertainty and complexity that characterise construction and operation of nuclear generators, we adopt a multi-method, scenario-based approach. The three methods used are: process-based, input-output, and hybrid life cycle assessment. Scenarios account for different total energy outputs over the life cycle of the nuclear generator, different end of life options, and different sectoral allocations of costs in the input-output calculus. Results for the process-based, input-output, and hybrid methods range between 16.55–17.69, 18.82–35.15, and 24.61–32.74 gCO2e/kWh, respectively. These are either well above or at the upper end of the range of possibilities (5 to 22 gCO2e/kWh) stated in a report for the UK’s Committee on Climate Change, and significantly higher than the median value of 12 gCO2e/kWh presented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. They are also higher than the values acknowledged by the nuclear industry. Given the severe potential lock-in effects of today’s energy choices for future generations, this research questions the role of nuclear energy to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals and calls for further scrutiny on its sustainability and environmental viability.

Suggested Citation

  • Pomponi, Francesco & Hart, Jim, 2021. "The greenhouse gas emissions of nuclear energy – Life cycle assessment of a European pressurised reactor," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:290:y:2021:i:c:s0306261921002555
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.116743
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261921002555
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.116743?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gralla, Fabienne & Abson, David J. & Møller, Anders P. & Lang, Daniel J. & von Wehrden, Henrik, 2017. "Energy transitions and national development indicators: A global review of nuclear energy production," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1251-1265.
    2. Stamford, Laurence & Azapagic, Adisa, 2011. "Sustainability indicators for the assessment of nuclear power," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 6037-6057.
    3. Ricardo Ramírez-Villegas & Ola Eriksson & Thomas Olofsson, 2019. "Environmental Payback of Renovation Strategies in a Northern Climate—the Impact of Nuclear Power and Fossil Fuels in the Electricity Supply," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.
    4. Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2008. "Valuing the greenhouse gas emissions from nuclear power: A critical survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 2940-2953, August.
    5. Manfred Lenzen & Ya-Yen Sun & Futu Faturay & Yuan-Peng Ting & Arne Geschke & Arunima Malik, 2018. "The carbon footprint of global tourism," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(6), pages 522-528, June.
    6. Akhil Kadiyala & Raghava Kommalapati & Ziaul Huque, 2016. "Quantification of the Lifecycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Nuclear Power Generation Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-13, October.
    7. Manfred Lenzen & Daniel Moran & Keiichiro Kanemoto & Arne Geschke, 2013. "Building Eora: A Global Multi-Region Input-Output Database At High Country And Sector Resolution," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 20-49, March.
    8. Paul Koltun & Alfred Tsykalo & Vasily Novozhilov, 2018. "Life Cycle Assessment of the New Generation GT-MHR Nuclear Power Plant," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-13, December.
    9. Ahearne, John F., 2011. "Prospects for nuclear energy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 572-580, July.
    10. Wang, Like & Wang, Yuan & Du, Huibin & Zuo, Jian & Yi Man Li, Rita & Zhou, Zhihua & Bi, Fenfen & Garvlehn, McSimon P., 2019. "A comparative life-cycle assessment of hydro-, nuclear and wind power: A China study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 249(C), pages 37-45.
    11. Pehnt, Martin & Oeser, Michael & Swider, Derk J., 2008. "Consequential environmental system analysis of expected offshore wind electricity production in Germany," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 747-759.
    12. Nian, Victor & Chou, S.K. & Su, Bin & Bauly, John, 2014. "Life cycle analysis on carbon emissions from power generation – The nuclear energy example," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 68-82.
    13. Ethan S. Warner & Garvin A. Heath, 2012. "Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Nuclear Electricity Generation," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 16(s1), pages 73-92, April.
    14. Graham Treloar, 1997. "Extracting Embodied Energy Paths from Input-Output Tables: Towards an Input-Output-based Hybrid Energy Analysis Method," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(4), pages 375-391.
    15. Arnold Tukker & Richard Wood & Sarah Schmidt, 2020. "Towards accepted procedures for calculating international consumption-based carbon accounts," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(S1), pages 90-106, April.
    16. Manfred Lenzen, 2010. "Current State of Development of Electricity-Generating Technologies: A Literature Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-130, March.
    17. Wiedmann, Thomas & Wilting, Harry C. & Lenzen, Manfred & Lutter, Stephan & Palm, Viveka, 2011. "Quo Vadis MRIO? Methodological, data and institutional requirements for multi-region input-output analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 1937-1945, September.
    18. Beerten, Jef & Laes, Erik & Meskens, Gaston & D'haeseleer, William, 2009. "Greenhouse gas emissions in the nuclear life cycle: A balanced appraisal," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5056-5068, December.
    19. Jérôme Serp & Christophe Poinssot & Stéphane Bourg, 2017. "Assessment of the Anticipated Environmental Footprint of Future Nuclear Energy Systems. Evidence of the Beneficial Effect of Extensive Recycling," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-19, September.
    20. Leontief, Wassily, 1970. "Environmental Repercussions and the Economic Structure: An Input-Output Approach," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 52(3), pages 262-271, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Xiaoyue & Huang, Guohe & Liu, Lirong & Li, Kailong, 2022. "Development of a stochastic multistage lifecycle programming model for electric power system planning – A case study for the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    2. Giambattista Guidi & Anna Carmela Violante & Simona De Iuliis, 2023. "Environmental Impact of Electricity Generation Technologies: A Comparison between Conventional, Nuclear, and Renewable Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-33, November.
    3. Yue, Xianghua & Peng, Michael Yao-Ping & Anser, Muhammad Khalid & Nassani, Abdelmohsen A. & Haffar, Mohamed & Zaman, Khalid, 2022. "The role of carbon taxes, clean fuels, and renewable energy in promoting sustainable development: How green is nuclear energy?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 167-178.
    4. Aleksandra Badora & Krzysztof Kud & Marian Woźniak, 2021. "Nuclear Energy Perception and Ecological Attitudes," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-18, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robin Taylor & William Bodel & Laurence Stamford & Gregg Butler, 2022. "A Review of Environmental and Economic Implications of Closing the Nuclear Fuel Cycle—Part One: Wastes and Environmental Impacts," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-35, February.
    2. Jones, Christopher & Gilbert, Paul & Raugei, Marco & Mander, Sarah & Leccisi, Enrica, 2017. "An approach to prospective consequential life cycle assessment and net energy analysis of distributed electricity generation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 350-358.
    3. Thomas Wiedmann & Heinz Schandl & Daniel Moran, 2015. "The footprint of using metals: new metrics of consumption and productivity," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 17(3), pages 369-388, July.
    4. Nian, Victor, 2015. "Change impact analysis on the life cycle carbon emissions of energy systems – The nuclear example," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 437-450.
    5. Muellner, Nikolaus & Arnold, Nikolaus & Gufler, Klaus & Kromp, Wolfgang & Renneberg, Wolfgang & Liebert, Wolfgang, 2021. "Nuclear energy - The solution to climate change?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    6. Kucukvar, Murat & Cansev, Bunyamin & Egilmez, Gokhan & Onat, Nuri C. & Samadi, Hamidreza, 2016. "Energy-climate-manufacturing nexus: New insights from the regional and global supply chains of manufacturing industries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 889-904.
    7. Dolter, Brett & Victor, Peter A., 2016. "Casting a long shadow: Demand-based accounting of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions responsibility," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 156-164.
    8. Carless, Travis S. & Griffin, W. Michael & Fischbeck, Paul S., 2016. "The environmental competitiveness of small modular reactors: A life cycle study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 84-99.
    9. Poinssot, Ch. & Bourg, S. & Ouvrier, N. & Combernoux, N. & Rostaing, C. & Vargas-Gonzalez, M. & Bruno, J., 2014. "Assessment of the environmental footprint of nuclear energy systems. Comparison between closed and open fuel cycles," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 199-211.
    10. Leonie Wenz & Anders Levermann & Sven Norman Willner & Christian Otto & Kilian Kuhla, 2020. "Post-Brexit no-trade-deal scenario: Short-term consumer benefit at the expense of long-term economic development," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-14, September.
    11. Eisenmenger, Nina & Wiedenhofer, Dominik & Schaffartzik, Anke & Giljum, Stefan & Bruckner, Martin & Schandl, Heinz & Wiedmann, Thomas O. & Lenzen, Manfred & Tukker, Arnold & Koning, Arjan, 2016. "Consumption-based material flow indicators — Comparing six ways of calculating the Austrian raw material consumption providing six results," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 177-186.
    12. Daniel Moran & Richard Wood, 2014. "Convergence Between The Eora, Wiod, Exiobase, And Openeu'S Consumption-Based Carbon Accounts," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(3), pages 245-261, September.
    13. Eivind Lekve Bjelle & Johannes Többen & Konstantin Stadler & Thomas Kastner & Michaela C. Theurl & Karl-Heinz Erb & Kjartan-Steen Olsen & Kirsten S. Wiebe & Richard Wood, 2020. "Adding country resolution to EXIOBASE: impacts on land use embodied in trade," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 9(1), pages 1-25, December.
    14. Suh, Sangwon, 2004. "Functions, commodities and environmental impacts in an ecological-economic model," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 451-467, April.
    15. Sun, Ya-Yen & Cadarso, Maria Angeles & Driml, Sally, 2020. "Tourism carbon footprint inventories: A review of the environmentally extended input-output approach," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    16. David Font Vivanco & Ranran Wang & Sebastiaan Deetman & Edgar Hertwich, 2019. "Unraveling the Nexus: Exploring the Pathways to Combined Resource Use," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 23(1), pages 241-252, February.
    17. Rong Ma & Ke Li & Yixin Guo & Bo Zhang & Xueli Zhao & Soeren Linder & ChengHe Guan & Guoqian Chen & Yujie Gan & Jing Meng, 2021. "Mitigation potential of global ammonia emissions and related health impacts in the trade network," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, December.
    18. Hermannsson, Kristinn & McIntyre, Stuart G., 2014. "Local consumption and territorial based accounting for CO2 emissions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 1-11.
    19. Mingming Zhu & Jigan Wang & Jie Zhang & Zhencheng Xing, 2022. "Urban Low-Carbon Consumption Performance Assessment: A Case Study of Yangtze River Delta Cities, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-14, August.
    20. Giambattista Guidi & Anna Carmela Violante & Simona De Iuliis, 2023. "Environmental Impact of Electricity Generation Technologies: A Comparison between Conventional, Nuclear, and Renewable Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-33, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:290:y:2021:i:c:s0306261921002555. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.