Why does China want nuclear power

When it comes to the emission reduction of nuclear power, we have to mention a widely spread rumor on the Internet. Rumors say that nuclear power is not actually a clean energy, because nuclear power needs a lot of treatment projects when it is decommissioned, and the CO2 emissions generated in the process are very large, and there are even rumors that this output will actually make the CO2 emissions generated by nuclear power by thermal power are even larger. According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this is simply an alarmist rumor. Over the life cycle (which includes production, maintenance and decommissioning), nuclear generates only 1.5 per cent of the CO2 emissions per kilowatt-hour of electricity that coal does, and only a third of that of photovoltaic. It is true that nuclear power has a large number of construction and treatment methods during the construction and decommissioning process, which does lead to additional CO2 emissions. However, during the long life of a nuclear power plant after 60 or even 99 years of service, the CO2 emissions generated by the maintenance process are very low. So nuclear power is definitely a very clean energy source from a full life cycle perspective.

Of course, nuclear power is not flawless, or it would not be so hotly debated. The disadvantages of nuclear power mainly come from two aspects, one is nuclear waste, the other is nuclear leakage. Nuclear waste includes high level, medium level and low level three categories, we generally refer to high-level nuclear waste, mainly spent fuel rods, but also includes the high-level waste generated during the decommissioning of nuclear power plants. Nuclear leakage is of greater concern to everyone, and it is also the hot spot of the explosion of Chernobyl. This is a very long topic, which I will cover in more detail in another article. It can only be said here that most of the nuclear power plants currently being built on a large scale in China are third-generation nuclear power plants, that is, safer second-generation reactors. From the technical level, the probability of nuclear leakage is reduced to the greatest extent, but the human factor is always there. Therefore, there is always a risk of leakage in nuclear power plants, which anyone who is objective about nuclear power will not deny.