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COP28 - Net zero needs nuclear power

Rafael Mariano Gossi
Austria - World
2023
iaea.org
Most of the world's energy is provided by fossil fuels. Nuclear power is a very small part of the total energy picture. It will take a long time for nuclear power to significantly replace coal and natural gas for generating electricity around the world. Meanwhile the nuclear power industry is not focusing on solving the real problems holding it back. Not too smart!

The world needs nuclear power to fight climate change and action should be taken to expand the use of this clean energy source and help build “a low carbon bridge” to the future, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a landmark statement supported by dozens of countries at COP28 today.

Announced by Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi at a high-profile event of the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, it was the first time such an IAEA statement was issued, its broad international backing underlining increased global interest in nuclear power to tackle the existential challenge of a rapidly warming planet.

Many experts have demonstrated in numerous reports that atmospheric carbon dioxide plays a very small role in the warming of the planet at this concentration. All the nuclear power professional organizations who claim that it is important to replace fossil fuels with nuclear power are on a weak foundation. It would be much better to point out that nuclear power can help humanity prepare for climate change. Nuclear power will never influence how climate change happens.

As long as nuclear power organizations hitch their purpose to bad science, they will not solve the real reasons nuclear power has been brought to a stop in North America and Europe. John Shanahan, civil engineer.