NEI Nuclear Notes

Australian Barry Brook, Chair of Environmental Sustainability at the University of Tasmania , has put together a letter with 75 other academics in his field to argue for more nuclear energy. The letter in turn points to a journal article co-authored by Brook called “Key Role for Nuclear Energy in Global Biodiversity Conservation,” published in Conservation Biology. Here is part of the abstract : We evaluated the land use, emissions, climate, and cost implications of 3 published but divergent storylines for future energy production, none of which was optimal for all environmental and economic indicators. Using multicriteria decision-making analysis, we ranked 7 major electricity-generation sources (coal, gas, nuclear, biomass, hydro, wind, and solar) based on costs and benefits and tested the sensitivity of the rankings to biases stemming from contrasting philosophical ideals. Irrespective of weightings, nuclear and wind energy had the highest benefit-to-cost ratio. Although...