14 Apr (NucNet): Nuclear energy could make an increasing contribution to low‐carbon energy supply, but a variety of barriers to its use remain, a new report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes.
According to the Working Group III contribution to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, nuclear is a mature low‐GHG emission source of baseload power, but its share of global electricity generation has been declining since 1993.
Barriers to its use include operational risks, uranium mining risks, financial and regulatory risks, unresolved waste management issues, nuclear weapon proliferation concerns, and adverse public opinion.
The report says new fuel cycles and reactor technologies addressing some of these issues are being investigated and progress in research and development has been made concerning safety and waste disposal.
The report shows that global emissions of greenhouse gases have risen to unprecedented levels despite a growing number of policies to reduce climate change. Emissions grew more quickly between 2000 and 2010 than in each of the three previous decades.
According to the report, it would be possible, using a wide array of technological measures and changes in behaviour, to limit the increase in global mean temperature to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. However, only major institutional and technological change will give a better than even chance that global warming will not exceed this threshold.
The report, entitled Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change, is the third of three Working Group reports, which, along with a Synthesis Report due in October 2014, constitute the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report on climate change.
A summary of the report, which will be released on 15 April 2015, is online:
http://report.mitigation2014.org/spm/ipcc_wg3_ar5_summary-for-policymakers_approved.pdf
