Nuclear Information and Resource Service
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[edit] Background
The Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) was founded in 1978 and is the information and networking center for citizens and organizations concerned about nuclear power, radioactive waste, radiation and sustainable energy issues. Specialists at NIRS offer more than 100 years of combined experience on the environmental, health and safety detriments of nuclear power.
NIRS works to define and shape a future that ensures nuclear power stays off the agenda for solutions to global energy needs or climate change. The organization advocates for the implementation of safe, sustainable solutions such as energy efficiency, solar power and wind power. Together with its partner WISE (World Information Service on Energy), NIRS outreach spans the globe, with 14 offices on five continents [1].
Recently, NIRS has started the Beyond Nuclear project which is designed to link the campaigns to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the revival new construction of nuclear power reactors.
NIRS is a 501c3 organization. It is located at: 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 340, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Its Web site address is: nirs.org
[edit] Central Arguments
NIRS is actively campaigning against the use of new nuclear power plants as a remedy for global warming using two arguments.
First, despite its public portrayal by the nuclear industry, nuclear power is not a carbon-free technology. Only the reactors themselves are carbon-neutral. The rest of the nuclear fuel chain (including mining of uranium, milling, processing and enrichment of uranium, construction of reactors and other necessary major nuclear facilities, and radioactive waste storage) results in significant release of carbon. To the extent that nuclear reactors would directly replace existing coal plants, modest carbon reductions would occur[citation needed]; to the extent that new reactors would represent new capacity—the result would be an increase in greenhouse gases, not a decrease.
In either case, other technologies (energy efficiency, wind, solar, etc) could provide the same amount of electricity needs while providing a far greater reduction in greenhouse gas emissions than nuclear power, although again, to the extent Renewable Power represents new capacity, greenhouse gasses would still increase (through the manufacturing process).
Second, NRIS argues that nuclear power is far more costly than most other alternatives[citation needed], especially when the full cost of the entire nuclear fuel chain is considered{cite-needed}. NRIS argues that spending the levels of resources necessary to build dozens of new reactors, not to mention thousands, would result in insufficient resources to deploy essentially carbon-free technologies and thus would prevent the world from achieving the level of greenhouse gas emissions cuts now widely regarded as necessary (about 80% cut by mid-century). At best, construction of 2-3,000 new reactors would result in emissions reductions of around 20%, but would require capital costs of $4-8 trillion or more. Far greater emissions reductions could be obtained by using our resources to fully develop and deploy more advanced and sustainable technologies. However, the world is unlikely to be able to provide enough resources to implement large-scale nuclear and the more sustainable technologies.
