In an open letter, more than 60 leading scientists are urging environmentalists to set aside their preconceptions about nuclear power. Their support for a recently published article titled Key role for nuclear energy in global biodiversity conservation.
The paper was written by Barry Brook, chair of environmental sustainability at the University of Tasmania, and Corey Bradshaw, Hubert Wilkins chair of climate change at the University of Adelaide in the journal Conservation Biology.
This assesses the land use, emissions, climate, and cost implications of three previously published but contrasting "storylines" for future energy production. It then uses a multi-criteria decision-making analysis to rank seven electricity-generation sources - coal, gas, nuclear, biomass, hydro, wind, and solar - based on costs and benefits. It also tests the sensitivity of their rankings to bias stemming from philosophical ideals. They found that nuclear and wind energy had the highest benefit-to-cost ratio.
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