NUCLEAR POWER IS STILL THE WRONG ANSWER
A NUCLEAR RENAISSANCE WOULDN’T SOLVE OUR PROBLEMS, BUT IT WOULD RIP US OFF
Even if a society were ready to absorb the high costs of nuclear power, it hardly makes the most sense as a tool to quickly combat climate change. These plants take too long to build. A 2004 analysis in Science by Stephen Pacala and Robert Socolow, of Princeton University’s Carbon Mitigation Initiative, estimates that achieving just one-seventh of the carbon reductions necessary to stabilize atmospheric CO2 at 500 parts per billion would require “building about 700 new 1,000- megawatt nuclear plants around the world.” That represents a huge wave of investment that few seem willing to undertake, and it would require decades to accomplish.
