Climate change and the competitiveness of nuclear power

Global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased remarkably as a result of human activities since the Industrial Revolution. According to the 4th Assessment Report of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), dated February 2007, many scientific and technical facts show that the primary source of the increased atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide results from 'fossil fuel use'. with land use change providing another significant but smaller contribution. And the report says that the global average temperature will rise 1.8∼4.deg.C in the 21st century, which has the probability of above 90%. Also there was an important announcement in COP12 meeting which was held in Kenya on November 2006, where the Stern Review revealed that the overall costs and risks of Climate Change would be equivalent to loss at least 5% of global GDP each year, now and after. These are risks of major disruption to economic and social activity, on a scale similar to those associated with the great wars and the economic depression of the first half of the 20th century. Natural gas dispute of Russia Ukraine in 2006 and oil pipeline dispute of Russia Belarus in the beginning of 2007 provided the important message to the world as well as European countries with respect to energy security which means the stability of energy supply. Annex I nations have duties to cut GHG emissions about 5.2% according to the Kyoto Protocol. As worldwide energy environment is changing, nuclear power industries have met the new situation after TMI accident in 1979 and Chernovyl accident in 1986 which made the nuclear power industries frozen for 30 years. There also have been technical developments and cost saving efforts to strengthen competitiveness of the nuclear power industries. However, nuclear power did not acquire its validity in cost based competitiveness compared to fossil fuels but just keeps its advantage of stability in fuel supply. This study describes GHG emission rates by LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), especially discusses the carbon dioxide emissions in energy related field and the nuclear competitiveness' s evaluation in view of economic value. Additionally we will suggest how to overcome the weakness and obstacles of nuclear power