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The complexity of carbon reduction and economic sustainability is significantly complicated by competing aspects of socioeconomic practices as well as legislative, regulatory, and scientific requirements and protocols. An easy to read and understand guide, Sioshansi, along with an international group of contributors, moves through the maze of carbon reduction methods and technologies, providing steps and insights to meet carbon reduction requirements and maintaining the health and welfare of the firm. The book’s three part treatment is based on a clear and rigorous exposition of a wide range of options to reduce the carbon footprint Part 1 of the book, Challenge of Sustainability, examines the fundamental drivers...
The 576 abstracted references on nuclear facility decommissioning, uranium mill tailings management, and site remedial actions constitute the tenth in a series of reports prepared annually for the U.S. Department of Energy's Remedial Action Programs. Citations to foreign and domestic literature of all types—technical reports, progress reports, journal articles, symposia proceedings, theses, books, patents, legislation, and research project descriptions—have been included. The bibliography contains scientific, technical, economic, regulatory, and legal information pertinent to the U.S. Department of Energy's Remedial Action Programs. Major sections are (1) Surplus Facilities Management Program, (2) Nuclear Facilities...
This factual and occasionally philosophical book examines the intimate relations between mankind and energy. The major goal of the volume is to provide readers with the knowledge necessary to make decisions on energy policies. The impact of energy throughout the history of man is traced. The present energy source options are described, as are the processes of energy conversion for human use, and methods to estimate future costs of energy sources. The conflicts of interest between conservationists and the power industry are discussed from a neutral perspective. Chapters are included on the following topics: Energy in Human History; How Mankind Uses Energy; Sources of Energy; Energy and Economics; New Fuels from Old...
This book contains contributions by expert scientists and engineers on all of the sources of energy available to us now and in the near future that will enable us to take the energy decisions needed for sustaining development and dealing with climate change.
The contribution of nuclear power to a sustainable energy future is a contested issue. This paper presents a critical review of an attempt to objectify this debate through the calculation of the external costs of a potential large-scale nuclear accident in the ExternE project. A careful dissection of the ExternE approach resulted in a list of 30 calculation steps and assumptions, from which the 6 most contentious ones were selected through a stakeholder internet survey. The policy robustness and relevance of these key assumptions were then assessed in a workshop using the concept of a ‘pedigree of knowledge’. Overall, the workshop outcomes revealed the stakeholder and expert panel's scepticism about the assumptions...
Electricity supplies an increasing share of the world’s total energy demand and that contribution is set to increase. At the same time, there is increasing socio-political will to mitigate impacts of climate change as well as to improve energy security. This, in combination with the desire to ensure social and economic prosperity, creates a pressing need to consider the sustainability implications of future electricity generation. However, approaches to sustainability assessment differ greatly in their scope and methodology as currently there is no standardised approach. With this in mind, this paper reviews sustainability indicators that have previously been used to assess energy options and proposes a new sustainability...
Improving energy efficiency is the most effective and least expensive way to reduce carbon dioxide (C02) emissions in most industrialized nations - including the UK. A report from the UKAEA's own Energy Technology Support Unit concludes that energy efficiency can displace nearly four times more C02 than nuclear power can - more quickly and more cost-effectively. Each pound invested in efficient lighting can displace four to five times as much C02 as a pound invested in new nuclear power. Meanwhile, given recent dramatic progress in renewable energy technologies, the most promising long-term COz-abatement strategy may be a synergistic combination of energy efficiency and renewable energy.
This study utilizes the Johansen cointegration technique, the Granger non-causality test of Toda and Yamamoto (1995), the generalized impulse response function, and the generalized forecast error variance decomposition to examine the dynamic interrelationship among nuclear energy consumption, real oil price, oil consumption, and real income in six highly industrialized countries for the period 1965–2008. Our empirical results indicate that the relationships between nuclear energy consumption and oil are as substitutes in the U.S. and Canada, while they are complementary in France, Japan, and the U.K. Second, the long-run income elasticity of nuclear energy is larger than one, indicating that nuclear energy is a...
There are at least three motivations for government intervention in GHG mitigation: (1) inducing the private sector to reduce GHG emissions directly by setting a price on emissions, (2) increasing the amount of innovative activity in GHG mitigation technology development, and (3) educating the public regarding GHG-reducing investment opportunities, allowing consumers to make better private decisions. This paper discusses the pros and cons of policy instruments that might be used to respond to these motivations and makes recommendations for an appropriate mix of policy instruments over time given both economic and policital/instituional considerations.
Bioenergy has several advantages over fossil fuels. For example, it delivers energy at low net CO2 emission levels and contributes to sustaining future energy supplies. The concern, however, is that an increase in biomass plantations will reduce the land available for agricultural production. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of taxing conventional electricity production or carbon use in combination with subsidizing biomass or bioelectricity production on the production of biomass and agricultural commodities and on the share of bioelectricity in total electricity production. We develop a partial equilibrium model to illustrate some of the potential impacts of these policies on greenhouse gas emissions,...
This paper addresses two questions concerning the economics and prospects for nuclear power in the USA: 1) What is the long term economic future of nuclear energy? 2) Is the inability to solve the nuclear waste issue a factor that will limit new nuclear plant development? With respect to the first question, we find that the long term economic future of nuclear energy is uncertain, at best. Despite recent interest in a “nuclear renaissance,” objective, rigorous studies have concluded that, at present, new nuclear power plants are not economically competitive with coal or natural gas for electricity generation and will not be for the foreseeable future. With respect to the second question, we find that the inability...
The complexity of carbon reduction and economic sustainability is significantly complicated by competing aspects of socioeconomic practices as well as legislative, regulatory, and scientific requirements and protocols. An easy to read and understand guide, Sioshansi, along with an international group of contributors, moves through the maze of carbon reduction methods and technologies, providing steps and insights to meet carbon reduction requirements and maintaining the health and welfare of the firm. The book’s three part treatment is based on a clear and rigorous exposition of a wide range of options to reduce the carbon footprint Part 1 of the book, Challenge of Sustainability, examines the fundamental drivers...
The complexity of carbon reduction and economic sustainability is significantly complicated by competing aspects of socioeconomic practices as well as legislative, regulatory, and scientific requirements and protocols. An easy to read and understand guide, Sioshansi, along with an international group of contributors, moves through the maze of carbon reduction methods and technologies, providing steps and insights to meet carbon reduction requirements and maintaining the health and welfare of the firm. The book’s three part treatment is based on a clear and rigorous exposition of a wide range of options to reduce the carbon footprint Part 1 of the book, Challenge of Sustainability, examines the fundamental drivers...
A visual impact evaluation method specifically designed to assess landscape alteration as a result of surface mining and quarrying would represent a fundamental aid for both those involved in the early stages of mine planning and design (mining companies) and those in charge of controlling and verifying environmental impacts (government authorities). This research is based on implementation of the visual impact indicator Lvi, which takes into account two parameters among those physically measurable: the extent of visible alteration in the landscape and the chromatic contrast between bare rock and the surrounding environment. Both parameters can be quantified by processing one or more digital images taken from the...
This book contains contributions by expert scientists and engineers on all of the sources of energy available to us now and in the near future that will enable us to take the energy decisions needed for sustaining development and dealing with climate change.
Improving energy efficiency is the most effective and least expensive way to reduce carbon dioxide (C02) emissions in most industrialized nations - including the UK. A report from the UKAEA's own Energy Technology Support Unit concludes that energy efficiency can displace nearly four times more C02 than nuclear power can - more quickly and more cost-effectively. Each pound invested in efficient lighting can displace four to five times as much C02 as a pound invested in new nuclear power. Meanwhile, given recent dramatic progress in renewable energy technologies, the most promising long-term COz-abatement strategy may be a synergistic combination of energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Electricity generation is a major contributor to carbon dioxide emissions, and abatement in this sector is a key determinant of economy-wide regulation costs. The complexity of an integrated representation of economic and electricity systems makes simplifying assumptions appealing, but there is no evidence in the literature on how important the pitfalls may be. The aim of this paper is to provide such evidence, drawing on numerical simulations from a suite of partial and general equilibrium models that share common technological features and are calibrated to the same benchmark data. We report two basic findings. First, general equilibrium inter-sectoral effects of an economy-wide carbon policy are large. It follows...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation; Tags: Nuclear, Nuclear power, Uranium
In an earlier article the author has argued that the turbulent history of nuclear power in Britain and the USA stems from the technology itself, and has little to do with the very different institutional arrangements made for the new technology in the two countries. Nuclear plant has various features which make its planning extraordinarily difficult. Its long lead time, large unit size, capital intensity and dependence on complex infrastructure combine to ensure that mistakes are likely to be made in planning the technology and that what mistakes do occur are expensive. This article aims to expand on the earlier one in two ways; by looking at the apparent success of the French nuclear programme which seems to run...
This paper analyzes the socio-cultural, political and economic conditions prevalent during the inception of nuclear power programs in Japan and South Korea in order to identify commonalities which support nuclear power program expansion. The study identifies six factors as having a clear influence on supporting nuclear power development: (1) strong state involvement in guiding economic development; (2) centralization of national energy policymaking and planning; (3) campaigns to link technological progress with national revitalization; (4) influence of technocratic ideology on policy decisions; (5) subordination of challenges to political authority, and (6) low levels of civic activism. The paper postulates that...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation; Tags: Japan, Nuclear power, South Korea
A visual impact evaluation method specifically designed to assess landscape alteration as a result of surface mining and quarrying would represent a fundamental aid for both those involved in the early stages of mine planning and design (mining companies) and those in charge of controlling and verifying environmental impacts (government authorities). This research is based on implementation of the visual impact indicator Lvi, which takes into account two parameters among those physically measurable: the extent of visible alteration in the landscape and the chromatic contrast between bare rock and the surrounding environment. Both parameters can be quantified by processing one or more digital images taken from the...