this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2026
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Uranium is clean?
Extremely.
Even adding in construction and mining, it has the lowest carbon per KWh out of any option. Even Hydro comes out worse, due to the years of carbon and methane emissions from the decaying plant matter at the bottom of the newly formed lake.
Wind and solar are down there, but the mining costs and the low output per unit tend to bump the numbers.
Noted, that's just the carbon released. There are other metrics, and nuclear tends to meet most all of them because it's very heavily regulated.
That's one hell of a claim. In fact such an outrageously bold one that you shouldn't be able to post a comment like that without citing a reputable source.
Not OP but
https://ourworldindata.org/nuclear-energy
It's not that bold or outrageous... It's been common knowledge for over 40 years.
Basically since the dawn of nuclear power plants we knew it was the cleanest form of energy generation. That was literally its selling point.
The problem was the fear of radiation if shit went wrong.
The consequence of this legitimate fear is crazy security and the cost of it. To the point where the cost of new nuclear now struggles to compete with renewables. The new generation plants EPR are catastrophic in terms of budget and schedule.
The thing is, it's not a legitimate fear.
Radiation needs respect, but it's not the magic death sauce that Movies and the Oil industry claim it is.
We swim in a sea if radiation every moment of every day.
I studied physics at university, I alsohad the opportunity to visit Fukushima Daichi after the catastroph and one of the new EPR. Enrichied fuel used in nuclear power plants and the byproducts of the reactions are dangerous. The multiple security measures are not there for the pleasure of spending budget.
Dangerous, but slightly less so than you'd think.
Unless you already know that LNT is bullshit.
Also, the evacuation of Fukushima caused far more death than any radiation exposure.
Especially considering how much radioactive contamination is found in fly ash from coal power plants. And fly ash disposal is mostly unregulated. https://nicholas.duke.edu/news/radioactive-contaminants-found-coal-ash