Powering up for the future
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As a clean energy source, nuclear energy not only has more advanced technologies and lower costs, it is also more persistent and stable than wind and solar, thus it is regarded by many countries as a key way to cut greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change.
According to the Energy Technology Perspective 2010 by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the capacity of nuclear power stations globally is expected to reach 1.2 billion kilowatts (kW) by 2050. With an annual production of about 10 trillion kilowatt-hours, nuclear generated electricity would account for almost 24 percent of the world's total, making it the single biggest energy source.
That would greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According to the IEA, by 2050 nuclear power, which unlike carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology does not require great technological progress, could cut 2.58 billion tons of greenhouse gases, 6 percent of the global carbon-cutting objectives.
China needs nuclear energy to realize its two objectives: making non-fossil derived energy 15 percent of all primary energy sources, and cutting carbon emissions per unit GDP by 40 to 45 percent. Studies suggest that 10 to 15 percent of all the country's carbon-cutting objectives would depend on nuclear energy by 2020.
In fact, before the Fukushima Daiichi power plant crisis in Japan, nuclear energy was listed as a key measure in many countries' carbon-cutting plans. However, the problems at the Japanese nuclear plant have not only cast a shadow over nuclear development, they have also brought uncertainties to the global climate change negotiations.
With nuclear energy development limited, many countries might review their carbon-cutting objectives, which would further weaken the political trust among them. In the recent UN climate change conference in Bangkok, the Japanese delegation said they might review the country's objective of cutting carbon emissions in 2020 by 25 percent.
Today it is still too early to conclude what effects the Fukushima incident will have on global climate conferences; but we can analyze the role of nuclear energy in the process, and the performance of substitute technologies.
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