Energy and Environmental Impacts The nuclear fuel cycle is the entire process of producing, using, and disposing of uranium fuel. Powering a one-gigawatt nuclear plant for a year can require mining 20,000-400,000 mt of ore, processing it into 27.6 mt of uranium fuel, and disposing of 27.6 mt of highly radioactive spent fuel, of which 90% (by volume) is low-level waste, 7% is intermediate-level waste, and 3% is high-level waste.16,17 U.S. plants currently use “once-through” fuel cycles with no reprocessing.18,19 A uranium fuel pellet (~1/2 in. height and diameter) contains the energy equivalent of one ton of coal or 149 gallons of oil.10 Typical reactors hold 18 million pellets.6 Each kWh of nuclear electricity requires 0.1-0.3 kWh of life cycle energy inputs.20 Although nuclear electricity generation itself produces no GHG emissions, other fuel cycle activities do release emissions.21 The life cycle GHG intensity of nuclear power is estimated to be 34-60 gCO2e/kWh—far below baseload sources such as coal (1,001 gCO2e/kWh).21,22 Nuclear power plants consume 270-670 gallons of water/MWh, depending on operating efficiency and site conditions.23 Uranium is mostly extracted by open pit mining (16.1%), underground mining (20%) and in-situ leaching (ISL) (57.4%).14 ISL, the injection of acidic/alkaline solutions underground to dissolve and pump uranium to the surface, eliminates ore tailings associated with other mining but raises aquifer protection concerns.24 ISL standards were initially instituted in 1983, and have been amended multiple times since, most recently in 1995.25

(Återkommande forskning visar att 85-90 procent av tonårskillar begår brott. Allt från snatteri upp till rån och mord. Och det oavsett om de har invandrarbakgrund eller inte. Cirka 97-98 procent av de här killarna blir sedan skötsamma arbetande vuxna medborgare – som beklagar sig över ungdomsbrottsligheten.)

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