{"id":52758,"date":"2022-03-18T12:20:34","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T11:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=52758"},"modified":"2025-09-18T14:57:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T12:57:16","slug":"reasons-why-nuclear-energy-not-way-green-and-peaceful-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/52758\/reasons-why-nuclear-energy-not-way-green-and-peaceful-world\/","title":{"rendered":"6 reasons why nuclear energy is not the way to a green and peaceful world"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nuclear power is often hailed as a magic bullet solution for the rapid and large-scale decarbonisation of our societies which we all know needs to happen if we have any hope of mitigating the worst effects of the unfolding climate emergency. Among politicians and industry groups, it is consistently favoured over meaningful investment in renewable energy systems, bolstered with misleading claims of its safety, efficiency, stability, and speed of deployment. <\/p>\n\n

With the costs and efficiency of renewable energy solutions improving year on year, and the effects of our rapidly changing climate accelerating across the globe, we need to take an honest look at some of the myths being perpetuated by the nuclear industry and its supporters. Here are six reasons why nuclear power is not the way to a green and peaceful zero carbon future.<\/p>\n\n

1. Nuclear energy delivers too little to matter<\/h2>\n\n

In order to tackle climate change, we need to reduce fossil fuels in the total energy mix well before 2050 to 0%.<\/p>\n\n

\"Demolition
Demolition of the two cooling towers of the Philippsburg nuclear power plant near the river Rhine. The site of the now decommissioned Philippsburg Nuclear Power Plant is located in Philippsburg, near Karlsruhe, Germany.
\u00a9 Bernd Hartung \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

According to scenarios from the World Nuclear Association<\/a> and the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency<\/a> (both nuclear lobby organisations), doubling the capacity of nuclear power worldwide in 2050 would only decrease greenhouse gas emissions by around 4%. But in order to do that, the world would need to bring 37 new large nuclear reactors to the grid every year from now, year on year, until 2050.<\/p>\n\n

The last decade only showed a few to 10 new grid connections per year<\/a>. Ramping that up to 37 is physically impossible – there is not sufficient capacity to make large forgings like reactor vessels. There are currently only 57 new reactors under construction<\/a> or planned for the coming one-and-a-half decade. Doubling nuclear capacity – different from the explosive growth of clean renewable energy sources like solar and wind – is therefore unrealistic. And that for only 4% when we already need to reduce 100%.<\/p>\n\n

2. Nuclear power plants are dangerous and vulnerable<\/h2>\n\n

Nuclear factories and plants are easy targets for malevolent acts<\/a>: terrorist threats, the risk of unintentional or voluntary airliner crashes, cyberattacks or acts of war. The enclosures of plants and certain ancillary buildings containing radioactive materials are not designed to withstand this type of attack or shock.<\/p>\n\n

\"Protest
Activists from the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior protest off the coast of France, in front of Orano nuclear facility in La Hague and the European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) of Flamanville.
\u00a9 Delphine Ghosarossian \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Nuclear power plants present unique hazards in terms of the potential consequences resulting from a severe accident. Nuclear reactors and their associated high level spent fuel stores are vulnerable to natural disasters, as Fukushima Daiichi showed<\/a>, but they are also vulnerable in times of military conflict<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

For the first time in history, a major war is being waged in a country with multiple nuclear reactors and thousands of tons of highly radioactive spent fuel. The war in southern Ukraine around Zaporizhzhia puts them all at heightened risk of a severe accident.<\/p>\n\n

Nuclear power plants are some of the most complex and sensitive industrial installations, which require a very complex set of resources in ready state at all times to keep them operational. This cannot be guaranteed in a war<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

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Russia's invasion poses historic nuclear threat, with Ukraine's 15 commercial nuclear reactors including Europe's largest plant at risk of catastrophic damage that could render vast areas of Europe uninhabitable for decades, new analysis shows https:\/\/t.co\/y3JNnPwA01<\/a><\/p>— Greenpeace PressDesk (@greenpeacepress) March 2, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>