[NukeNet] Latest Batch of NEI facts supporting nuclear power

Tue Jan 23 13:37:25 CST 2007

PRN: Key Facts About Nuclear Energy's Clean-Air Benefits

    WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following
is being issued by the Nuclear Energy Institute:

    * Approximately 30 percent of America's electricity comes
from sources that produce no air emissions or greenhouse gases:
nuclear energy, hydroelectric power, wind and solar power.
Nuclear energy represents 73 percent of this non-emitting
electricity supply. (Hydroelectric power represents 24 percent of
this non-emitting supply, while wind and solar combined provide
less than two percent of this non-emitting supply.)

    * In 2005, U.S. nuclear power plants prevented the discharge
of 682 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
This is nearly as much carbon dioxide as is released from all
U.S. passenger cars.

    * In 2005, U.S. nuclear power plants reduced emissions of
nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide -- pollutants controlled under
the Clean Air Act -- by 1.1 million short tons and 3.3 million
short tons respectively. The amount of nitrogen oxide emissions
that nuclear plants prevent annually is the equivalent of taking
nearly 55 million passenger cars off the road.

    * Nuclear energy is the single-largest piece of U.S.
industry's voluntary greenhouse gas emissions reduction program.
According to the newly released annual report to the U.S.
Department of Energy from Power Partners -- a voluntary
partnership between DOE and the electric power industry --
nuclear energy accounted for 54 percent of voluntary greenhouse
gas reductions reported by project type by preventing the
emission of 142 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. (This
figure results from incremental gains in electricity production
at nuclear power plants, rather than from total electricity
production at these plants.)

    * Nuclear energy has the smallest environmental impact of any
clean-air electricity source. For example, a 1,000-megawatt wind
farm would occupy 78 square miles. A 1,000-megawatt nuclear plant
would occupy less than five percent of that area. A
1,000-megawatt power plant can meet the needs of a city the size
of Boston or Seattle. SOURCE Nuclear Energy Institute