Publication Abstracts

Kharecha and Hansen 2013

Kharecha, P.A., and J.E. Hansen, 2013: Prevented mortality and greenhouse gas emissions from historical and projected nuclear power. Environ. Sci. Technol., 47, 4889-4895, doi:10.1021/es3051197.

In the aftermath of the March 2011 accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the future contribution of nuclear power to the global energy supply has become somewhat uncertain. Because nuclear power is an abundant, low-carbon source of base-load power, it could make a large contribution to mitigation of global climate change and air pollution. Using historical production data, we calculate that global nuclear power has prevented an average of 1.84 million air pollution-related deaths and 64 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent (GtCO2-eq) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that would have resulted from fossil fuel burning. On the basis of global projection data that take into account the effects of the Fukushima accident, we find that nuclear power could additionally prevent an average of 420,000-7.04 million deaths and 80-240 GtCO2-eq emissions due to fossil fuels by midcentury, depending on which fuel it replaces. By contrast, we assess that large-scale expansion of unconstrained natural gas use would not mitigate the climate problem and would cause far more deaths than expansion of nuclear power.

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BibTeX Citation

@article{kh05000e,
  author={Kharecha, P. A. and Hansen, J. E.},
  title={Prevented mortality and greenhouse gas emissions from historical and projected nuclear power},
  year={2013},
  journal={Environmental Science and Technology},
  volume={47},
  pages={4889--4895},
  doi={10.1021/es3051197},
}

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RIS Citation

TY  - JOUR
ID  - kh05000e
AU  - Kharecha, P. A.
AU  - Hansen, J. E.
PY  - 2013
TI  - Prevented mortality and greenhouse gas emissions from historical and projected nuclear power
JA  - Environ. Sci. Technol.
JO  - Environmental Science and Technology
VL  - 47
SP  - 4889
EP  - 4895
DO  - 10.1021/es3051197
ER  -

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