PEAK URANIUM
• The global nuclear industry requires approximately 68,000 tonnes
of uranium ore a year to operate.3 • Approximately 36,000 tonnes of uranium a year is manufactured
from ‘primary sources’ (mining).3
• Nearly half of all uranium
supply is now provided from military sources (decommissioned
weapons stocks and reserves) as
well as spent fuel recycling.3
• The European Commission estimates
that there may be only
2-3 million tonnes of exploitable uranium sources globally.4
• At current projections of nuclear
capacity, uranium mining operations will need to increase output
by 100% within 10-20 years
to meet demand.4
• It is estimated that global
exploitable reserves of uranium will likely be depleted within
30-40 years.4
• If all the world’s existing
fossil fuel based power stations were replaced by nuclear, there
would only be enough uranium
for 3-4 years.4
Nuclear power plants in operation worldwide
(click the map to enlarge it)
ACCIDENTS
Since the Chernobyl disaster
in 1986, there have been at
least 22 major accidents at nuclear power stations of
which 15 involved radiological release. Of these, 2 came
close to meltdown.7
WASTE
• The average nuclear power station produces between 20-30 tonnes
of used nuclear fuel each year, amounting to 8,800-13,200 tonnes
a year globally (not including military, research and medical sources).4
• A complete lifecycle analysis
of the nuclear process-chain (mining, transport, operation, storage
and decomissioning) reveals
that the average nuclear reactor produces 20-40% of the CO2 of
a typical gas fired power plant. Powerful greenhouse gases such
as HFC and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) are also produced in unknown
quantities.4
• A typical 1,000-megawatt pressurized-water
reactor (with a cooling tower) takes in 20,000 gallons of river,
lake or ocean
water per minute for cooling, circulates it through a 50-mile maze
of pipes, returns 5,000 gallons per minute to the same body of
water, and releases the remainder to the atmosphere as vapour.5
• Many governments have dumped
spent fuel rods and drums of radioactive sludge into the North
Atlantic (26 known sites),
the North Pacific (21 known sites) and the Arctic (6 known, but
many more suspected) oceans.6
ECONOMICS
• During the period 1953-2002 the Canadian Government has given the
nuclear industry approximately $14.5 billion in direct subsidies.8
• The US government spent nearly
$67 billion in direct subsidies to the nuclear industry in the
50-year period between 1948-98.9
• Members of the OECD (the 30
most industrialized nations) are estimated to have spent $318
billion on nuclear energy research
and development by 1992.10
• The European Union spends 61%
of its research and development funding for energy on nuclear
despite the fact that the industry only contributes
13% of the EU’s
energy supply.11
• In France, if the nuclear industry
were not exempt from paying full accident insurance, the premiums
would increase the
costs of nuclear generated electricity by 300%.11
Number of Reactors in Operation
Worldwide1 (as of 8 June 2005)
Global
Net Installed Electrical Generating Capacity of Nuclear
Power Plants 1960-2004
Global Net Installed Electrical Generating Capacity of
Nuclear Power Plants 1960-20041
* 1 gigawatt = 1,000,000,000
watts (enough to power 16,666,667 60-watt light bulbs
for 1 second or enough to supply the electricity demands
of about 1,000,000 average North American homes) city
demands of about 1,000,000 average North American homes).
• There are currently
37 nuclear reactors under construction with 40 more
on order or planned and 70
more proposed.1 • Current nuclear generating
capacity is at 366 gigawatts, the highest level ever
reached.1
• Current installed
nuclear capacity is nearly 100 gigawatts higher than
when the Chernobyl disaster
took place in 1986.1
• Total installed nuclear
generating capacity increased by more than 2% between
2003-04.2
• Approximately 75%
of installed nuclear power capacity in Europe is expected
to be retired by 2030.2 |
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1 Power Reactor Information System database,
International Atomic Energy Agency, 2005. www.iaea.org/programmes/a2/ World Nuclear
Association, www.world-nuclear.org. Vital Signs 2005, Worldwatch
Institute. Nuclear Monitor, WISE/NIRS. Press Reports.
2 Vital
Signs 2005, Worldwatch Institute.
3 Uranium Information Centre,
www.uic.com.au.
WISE-Uranium, www.wise-uranium.org. Nuclear
Energy: the Energy Balance, Jan-Willem Storm van Leeuwen and Philip Smith, 2005.
Nuclear Monitor, WISE/NIRS.
4 Nuclear Energy: the Energy Balance,
Jan-Willem
Storm van Leeuwen and Philip Smith, 2005. Nuclear Monitor, WISE/NIRS.
5 Nuclear Monitor, WISE/NIRS.
6 State of the Environment Atlas,
Penguin Books, 1995.
7 Nuclear Monitor, WISE/NIRS. ‘List
of Nuclear Accidents’, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_accidents.
Calendar of Nuclear Accidents, Greenpeace, http://archive.greenpeace.org/comms/nukes/chernob/rep02.html.
Press Reports.
8 Canadian Nuclear Subsidies: Fifty Years
of Futile Funding, David H Martin, Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout, 2003. ‘Unfair
Aid: The Subsidies Keeping Nuclear Energy Afloat’, Nuclear
Monitor, WISE/NIRS.
9 ‘Unfair Aid: The Subsidies Keeping
Nuclear Energy Afloat’, Nuclear Monitor, WISE/NIRS. Running
on Empty: How Envionmentally Harmful Energy Subsidies Siphons Billions
from Taxpayers, Green Scissors Campaign, 2002.
10 ‘Unfair
Aid: The Subsidies Keeping Nuclear Energy Afloat’, Nuclear
Monitor, WISE/NIRS. ‘Nuclear Energy Belongs in the Technology
Museum’, Hermann Scheer, Renewable Energy Access, 2004. www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=19012
11 ‘Unfair Aid: The Subsidies Keeping Nuclear Energy Afloat’,
Nuclear Monitor, WISE/NIRS. Environmentally Harmful Support Measures
in EU States, B Leurs et al, Centre for Energy Conservation and
Environmental Technology CE, Delft, 2003.
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