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The Local Environment
 To
replace the 2,000 megawatts from Indian Point will require
a fleet of new power plants and/or transmission lines strewn
throughout the region.
Nuclear is a clean energy source. Replacing the 2,000 megawatts
from Indian Point with fossil-fueled plants will dramatically
increase emissions into the atmosphere and surrounding environment.
The spent-fuel pools for the two operating Indian Point plants
have their own safety and construction features appropriate
for protection. They are constructed with concrete walls 4
to 6 feet wide and with a half-inch stainless steel inner
liner. They have back up cooling systems with back-up equipment.
The spent-fuel pool for Indian Point 1 is in a fully enclosed
concrete building.
The roof of the spent-fuel pool building has no nuclear safety
function. Damage to it would not have safety consequences.
The fuel pools can easily be re-filled with water.
It is very unlikely there would be significant off-site radiological
consequences even if the pools were drained of their water.
The Global Environment
- According to the U.S. Department of Energy and the Energy
Information Administration report Voluntary Reporting of
Greenhouse Gases 1997 (published June 1, 1999), the single
most effective emission control strategy for utilities was
to increase nuclear generation.
- Nuclear energy accounts for about 72 percent of U.S. emission-free
generation in 2000.
- Total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased from the
1990 baseline of 1,641 million metric tons of carbon equivalent
to 1,832 tons in 1999.
- Nuclear generated electricity avoids on average 155 million
metric tons of carbon equivalent per year in the U.S. This
figure is equal to the amount of reductions needed to achieve
the 1990 levels agreed to in the United Nations Climate
Change Treaty signed in Rio de Janiero in 1992.
- Without the emission avoidances from nuclear generation,
required reductions in the U.S. would increase by more than
50 percent to achieve targets under the Kyoto Protocol.
Worldwide nuclear energy avoids on average the emission
of 550 million tons of carbon per year.
- Nuclear generation avoids 2.4 million tons of nitrogen
oxide and 5.1 million tons of sulfur dioxide annually in
the U.S.
- Increased nuclear capacity and improved efficiency at
nuclear power plants since 1993 represents one-half of voluntary
carbon reductions from U.S. industries.
- In the U.S. Acid Rain program, 21 states showed between
1990-95 a 16.4 percent increase of nuclear generation that
avoided 480,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (37 percent of the
required emissions reduction). Under the 1990 Clean Air
Act Amendments, no credit was allocated to the nuclear plants.
But, based on the average value of publicly traded sulfur
dioxide credits, this contribution would have been worth
about $50 million.
NEI's Clean Air Report
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