Title: How much can nuclear energy do about global warming?

Authors: André Berger; Tom Blees; Francois-Marie Bréon; Barry W. Brook; Philippe Hansen; Ravi B. Grover; Claude Guet; Weiping Liu; Frederic Livet; Herve Nifenecker; Michel Petit; Gérard Pierre; Henri Prévot; Sébastien Richet; Henri Safa; Massimo Salvatores; Michael Schneeberger; Suyan Zhou

Addresses: Georges Lemaître Center for Earth and Climate Research, Earth and Life Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium ' Science Council for Global Initiatives, 1701 St. Clair Avenue E., North Fort Myers, Florida 33903, USA ' Save the Climate (Sauvons Le Climat), 15 passage Ramey 75018, Paris, France ' School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, TAS 7001, Australia ' Save the Climate (Sauvons Le Climat), 15 passage Ramey 75018, Paris, France ' Homi Bhabha National Institute, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai 400094, Maharashtra, India ' Energy Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 637141, Singapore ' China Institute of Atomic Energy, P. O. Box 275(1), Beijing 102413, China ' Université Grenoble Alpes, SIMAP-Phelma-CNRS, F-3800 Grenoble, France ' 49 rue Seraphin Guimet, 38220 Vizille, France; Université interages du Dauphine, 38000 Grenoble, France ' Save the Climate (Sauvons Le Climat), 15 passage Ramey 75018, Paris, France ' Bourgogne University, Dijon, France; Save the Climate (Sauvons Le Climat), 15 passage Ramey 75018, Paris, France ' Save the Climate (Sauvons Le Climat), 15 passage Ramey 75018, Paris, France ' Save the Climate (Sauvons Le Climat), 15 passage Ramey 75018, Paris, France ' International Institute of Nuclear Energy, Gif-sur-Yvette, France ' Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID 83401, USA ' Save the Climate (Sauvons Le Climat), 15 passage Ramey 75018, Paris, France ' Institutional Relations Director, EDF - Délégation Générale pour la Chine, État Major, 22-30 Avenue Wagram, 75008 Paris, France

Abstract: The framework MESSAGE from the IIASA fulfills the IPCC requirement RCP 2.6. To achieve this, it proposes the use of massive deployment of Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS), dealing with tens of billion tons of CO2. However, present knowledge of this process rests on a few experiments at the annual million tons level. MESSAGE includes three scenarios: 'Supply' with a high energy consumption; 'Efficiency' which implies the end of nuclear energy and the intermediary 'MIX'. We propose, as a variant of the MESSAGE framework, to initiate a sustained deployment of nuclear production in 2020, reaching a total nuclear power around 20,000 GWe by the year 2100. Our scenarios considerably reduce the interest or necessity for CCS. Renouncing nuclear power requires an energy consumption reduction of more than 40% compared to the 'Supply' scenario, without escaping the need to store more than 15 billion tons of CO2.

Keywords: 2100 energy scenarios; carbon dioxide; CO2; carbon emissions; nuclear power; carbon capture and storage; CCS; fast breeder reactors; CANDU reactors; cost; sustainability; risk; nuclear waste; nuclear energy; global warming; energy consumption.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGEI.2017.080766

International Journal of Global Energy Issues, 2017 Vol.40 No.1/2, pp.43 - 78

Received: 01 Aug 2015
Accepted: 05 Jun 2016

Published online: 06 Dec 2016 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article