Looking for a Climate Signal in the US Nuclear Power Debate

by William Space, May 2006

Executive Summary

Will concern about the likely effects of carbon emissions impact the willingness of people and organizations to accept the construction of new nuclear power plants in the United States? Analysts, environmental organizations, and the electric power industry agree that climate change has the potential to impact the ongoing debate about nuclear power, but no organization advocates a decisive shift from fossil fuels to nuclear power for electrical generation. Companies that own nuclear power plants also burn fossil fuels to generate electricity and therefore cannot be expected to support such a shift, and environmental organizations generally oppose the use of nuclear reactors to generate electricity. Emissions-trading programs offer contexts in which debates about the future role of nuclear power plants can occur. New Hampshire’s decision to allocate allowances to emit oxides of nitrogen to the Seabrook nuclear plant serves as a useful case study. Participants in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative process are considering possible emissions reduction strategies for the relatively nuclear-reliant Northeast. Twenty-seven of these people were interviewed for this project to understand how knowledgeable people are integrating knowledge about climate change with opinions about nuclear power. These interviews do document a climate signal in the debate about nuclear power, but they also show that concern about climate change has not resulted in substantial new support for the use of nuclear power to generate electricity.