7 ms·
“Unlike fission, fusion emits no greenhouse gases” Fission emits greenhouse gases?
by melling 8y ago
“Unlike fission, fusion emits no greenhouse gases”
Fission emits greenhouse gases?
- furgooswft13 8y agoFission emits lots of gasses and other sorts of hot air from the Green Lobby.
- the8472 8y agoThey're probably taking the whole fuel lifecycle into account. https://www.nirs.org/wp-content/uploads/climate/background/sovacool_nuclear_ghg.pdf https://www.nirs.org/wp-content/uploads/climate/background/s...
- ccffph 8y agoWouldnt then our “green renewables” also not be green due to their production lifecycle as well? Plastics, batteries, fiberglass, rare earth metals, cobalt, etc
- the8472 8y agoTo a small extent, yes. It's a matter of degree. Nuclear and renewables still have a much lower footprint than coal. It's just not zero. We don't know the full lifecycle costs of fusion plants, but at least the fuel part won't involve open pit mining, unlike uranium ore, so it hopefully will be better than fission.
- ThomPete 8y agoNuclear have a much lower fooprint than renewables, requires much less space, last longer, is more robust, doesn't require rare earth materials or support from ex coal (like wind and solar often end up doing) as a base component. Solar and wind is not even close to being in competition with nuclear when it comes to what is cleanest.
- bjelkeman-again 8y agoThis LCA study shows wind, large hydro and 4Gen nuclear to be in the same range. With solar pv being higher. https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/12/3452/htm https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/12/3452/htm
- nightski 8y agoStill that is only greenhouse gasses and not full environmental impact. Renewables take up a lot of space.
- Tade0 8y agoYes, but that space may well be someone's roof.
- ThomPete 8y agoNot for anything substantial plus there are plenty of solar and (all wind) that doesn't sit on someone's roof.
- TheOtherHobbes 8y agoDefine substantial. Domestic PV installations reliably produce a significant percentage of domestic consumption - even in countries like Germany and the UK, which aren't known for bright sun. Countries that do have bright sun typically skip straight to passive solar water heating systems, which can do an excellent job of eliminating water heating costs.
- adrianN 8y agoIt's not like the world is running out of space anytime soon.
- tomp 8y agoBut maybe we don’t want to pave the Earth with PV panels...
- ummonk 8y agoI assume they meant to say it creates no radioactive byproducts. Article seems to have been very poorly edited.
- rjsw 8y agoMost fission reactors that have been built so far use lots of concrete.
- pfdietz 8y agoAnd there are utility scale mounting systems for PV that use no concrete at all, just steel earth anchors.
- hn_throwaway_99 8y agoLooks like the article has been edited to fix this: > Fusion emits no greenhouse gases. Unlike fission, fusion carries less risk of accidents or the theft of atomic material.