Is Nuclear Power Bad for the Environment?

Is nuclear power bad for the environment? Yes. Is it a threat to public health and environmental justice? Yes. Is it also dangerous and expensive? Yes.

Nuclear Energy Definition

Electricity from nuclear power plants is generated through the process of nuclear fission. This occurs when a neutron hits the nucleus of certain atoms, splitting the nucleus into smaller nuclei, producing other neutrons, which then hit other atoms, creating more nuclei and more neutrons, resulting in a chain reaction within a nuclear reactor core. This releases massive amounts of energy as heat, radiation, and radioactive waste. The heat generated is used to boil water to create steam, which then turns an electric turbine to create electricity. Nuclear power plants require “enriched uranium” for their fuel to sustain the fission reaction and produce electricity. Naturally occurring uranium must be “enriched” to increase the concentration of the fission-able (“fissile”) isotope of uranium (U-235). 

According to the US Energy Information Administration, as of July 2024, there are 94 active commercial nuclear reactors at 54 nuclear power plants.

Nuclear Hazards – Waste

The production and use of nuclear power produces waste at every step of the process. Waste produced in nuclear power plants is radioactive and remains so for many thousands of years. There is no safe way to dispose of this radioactive waste, and it has piled up for decades at nuclear facilities. Spent nuclear fuel (i.e., old fuel removed from reactors) can be dangerous for thousands-to-millions of years.

According to the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, “For every pound of “enriched” uranium that goes into a nuclear reactor, there are, on average, over 5,000 pounds of radioactive waste…produced in the mining and processing of uranium.” And every pound of spent fuel that comes out of the reactor becomes millions of times more radioactive by the time it is taken out.

Nuclear Hazards – Extraction

Uranium, the metal that commonly fuels nuclear power, is extracted through underground or open-pit mining, or through a chemical process called in situ leaching. Underground uranium mining exposes workers to severe health risks, including lung cancer. Open-pit mining destroys ecosystems, leaving toxic, radioactive remnants and polluted land and water. In situ leaching permanently contaminates groundwater. Nuclear power is bad for the environment. Thousands of abandoned uranium mines dot the Southwest of the United States, disproportionately in Native American territories and communities of color. These markers of environmental injustice continue to harm the health and well-being of impacted communities and their air, lands, and waters.

Nuclear Hazards – Safety and Health

Nuclear disasters serve as prescient reminders of the unimaginable dangers of nuclear power. They may be caused by human error, mechanical failures, and/or natural disasters. The Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986 remains the worst nuclear accident in history. It will take at least 3,000 years for the area surrounding the nuclear power plant to be habitable. The second worst nuclear accident occurred in 2011 after an earthquake and tsunami struck the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Japan, causing all three operating reactors to melt down. The Three Mile Island Generating Station in Pennsylvania experienced a partial meltdown in 1979, leading to increases in cancer and other diseases. The worst radiation disaster in U.S. history is the Church Rock uranium spill, which occurred on the Navajo Nation a few months after Three Mile Island.

Nuclear accidents pose extreme threats to life and have forced abandonment of wide swaths of land. Health impacts include increased risk of different types of cancer, immune deficiencies, infant mortality and birth defects, acute radiation syndrome (radiation poisoning), and harms to mental health. Those who mine and mill uranium and who work at nuclear power plants also face higher risk of diseases such as cancer. 

The U.S. nuclear fleet is old, with an average age of 42 years. Aging infrastructure is more prone to cracks, corrosion, and other compromises in safety. Nuclear power stations are also vulnerable to military strikes and threats of terrorism. Further, the technologies required to make nuclear energy are also the technologies required to make nuclear weapons, raising the risk of nuclear proliferation.

Nuclear Hazards – Climate Change

Nuclear energy is not a solution to the climate crisis. Nuclear power is bad for the environment. It is magnitudes more expensive than wind and solar energy, and magnitudes slower to deploy. The long timeline needed for nuclear energy is deeply out of step with the urgency of addressing the climate crisis. Resources directed toward nuclear energy are resources that should go to real climate solutions – like solar and wind energy, battery storage, and efficiency.

When measured on a full life cycle basis, nuclear energy is far from a zero emissions technology. From mining, milling, and enriching uranium to plant construction, it is an energy intensive process. Further, the impacts of climate change – from warming waters to more extreme weather events like flooding and hurricanes – pose a serious risk to both operating and decommissioned nuclear power plants and radioactive waste sites.

Nuclear Hazards – Water

Producing nuclear energy is water-intensive, with large volumes consumed in various stages of the process. Climate change is driving heat waves and droughts – which in turn can drive up competition for increasingly scarce water resources, potentially jeopardizing the functioning of nuclear power plants. Nuclear power plants also pollute water and are responsible for killing many billions of fish and other aquatic life every year.

Nuclear Power Cons – Cost

Nuclear power is bad for the environment, and nuclear energy is extremely expensive. It is uncompetitive with other energy sources without government subsidies. Even with massive federal subsidies, over 100 reactors have been postponed or cancelled. The 17-year construction of two nuclear power reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia— the first nuclear energy project in decades — took an extra seven years and cost more than twice its $14 billion estimate.  

Subsidies for nuclear energy have been buried in hundreds of spending bills, with costs externalized to the environment and future generations and bills literally unpaid, defaulted on, or passed to taxpayers. Conservative estimates suggest that the nuclear industry has received more than $100 billion in subsidies, and federal legislation enacted by President Biden has authorized up to another $140 billion in subsidies, financing, and incentives.

The cost to dispose of nuclear waste is high, and the costs to clean up nuclear disasters are estimated to be in the hundreds of billions.  

Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant – A Special Case for Friends of the Earth

Diablo Canyon, California’s last operating nuclear power plant, represents one of the greatest nuclear safety dangers in the country. The two reactors at Diablo Canyon are near and on top of several earthquake fault lines, many of which were either unknown when the plant was built or are now known to be far more powerful. Diablo Canyon has also become an expensive obstacle to California’s ambitious climate and renewable energy plans, causing the state’s already-stressed grid to become overloaded and blocking the expansion of solar generation.

In 2016, Friends of the Earth reached a historic settlement for Diablo Canyon’s phase-out. The phase-out settlement was approved in 2018 and included fully replacing Diablo Canyon’s output with zero-emissions renewable energy and energy efficiency, a just transition for nuclear workers, and tax revenue stabilization for the local communities. Since then, California has added far more renewable energy and battery storage than would be needed to replace Diablo Canyon. But in 2022, with the federal government offering billions of dollars to promote nuclear power, Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) and CA Governor Gavin Newsom sought to overturn the phase-out and continue operating Diablo until at least 2030, which would cost Californians billions of dollars in higher electric bills. Friends of the Earth is doing everything we can to preserve the phase-out plan. We must ensure the safety of Californians, make utility bills affordable, and accelerate our transition to 100% renewable energy.