Climate and environmental impact of nuclear power
Final Report by German Environment Agency
The report assesses nuclear energy’s role in the transformation to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It contrasts top-down net-zero pathways from five integrated assessment models with a comprehensive bottom-up review of national programmes, including newcomer countries, and benchmarks these against the COP28/29 pledge to triple nuclear capacity. It further analyses system requirements in renewables-dominated grids, climate-change risks to plant reliability, and a harmonised cradle-to-grave environmental footprint of nuclear power across 40 regional life-cycle chains (2020 and 2030). Severe-accident impacts and proliferation risks are discussed, and life-cycle costs and GHG abatement costs of new nuclear (incl. SMRs) are compared with wind and solar.
Abstract: Climate and environmental impact of nuclear power
Against the background of the global objective of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the necessary phase-out of fossil fuels, and the transformation of the energy sector, this study assesses the role of nuclear energy in this transformation process from several perspectives.
To this end, we first examine the role of nuclear energy for achieving climate targets in five different integrated assessment models and compare them with a comprehensive bottom-up analysis of countries’ plans and programs for nuclear power until 2050. Next is a comprehensive life cycle assessment of nuclear power with a focus on the greenhouse gas emmissions. Different life-cycle chains are covering different countries and regions for the baseline year 2020 and a projection year 2030. The sudy adds a brief discussion of environmental impacts due to severe accidents in nuclear power plants and the proliferation risks inherent in the nuclear fuel cycle. Finally, we provide an assessment of the life cycle costs of electricity from new nuclear power plants and resulting greenhouse gas abatement costs with respect to hard coal, comparing them with those of renewable energies.
The results show that the development of renewable energies is the key to achieving the net-zero targets. Nuclear energy, on the other hand, is not necessary for achieving the climate targets and its significance for electricity generation in 2050 is very limited in any case. Despite the greenhouse gas emissions of nuclear energy, which are at a comparably low level to those of renewable energies, it is not a quick or cost-effective option for significantly reducing the energy system's greenhouse gas emissions due to long construction times and high costs.
See ful Report
See also: Factsheet Role of nuclear energy in global climate scenarios.
