nuclear-news

Global warming agents released in uranium enrichment

The radiative properties of CFCs make them a dangerous global warming agent — 1,500 times more potent than carbon dioxide, according to EPA figures. Ozone-depleting CFCs have been banned in the U.S. except in the processing of uranium ore.

As U.S. Moves Ahead with Nuclear Power, No Solution for Radioactive Waste, Solve Climate News, By Abby LubyMar 3, 2011.”…….Some observers have challenged the sector’s clean energy claims, however, especially when considering the entire nuclear fuel cycle and its impact on global warming.

According to the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC), which runs the only U.S.-owned uranium enrichment facility in Paducah, Kentucky, the enrichment cycle releases 300,000 pounds, or 150 tons, of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into the atmosphere yearly.

The radiative properties of CFCs make them a dangerous global warming agent — 1,500 times more potent than carbon dioxide, according to EPA figures. Ozone-depleting CFCs have been banned in the U.S. except in the processing of uranium ore.

Further, the Paducah plant enriches the yellowcake, a lightly processed form of uranium ore, to produce uranium oxide and make nuclear fission from two 1,500-megawatt, 30-year-old coal plants, which release CO2 and other environmental pollutants.

As U.S. Moves Ahead with Nuclear Power, No Solution for Radioactive Waste | SolveClimate News

March 4, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, Uranium, USA