Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard
The nuclear power plant requires a lot of energy during decommissioning, too, don't forget. And storage/security for the spent fuel, and low level radiation materials, too.
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Maybe. But "requires" can be a pretty slippery word, as for instance all those people who think a car "requires" a couple tons of steel and a big V8 :-)
Just to provoke thought, a large part of the carbon-cost of a nuclear plant is the concrete containment structure. Now if you've ever poked around Europe much, you'll run into a number of concrete structures that are still servicable - and being used - 1500-2000 years after they were built. See for instance the concrete dome of the Pantheon in Rome. So after investing all the time & materials needed to build a massive concrete structure, why "decommission" it a few decades later?