Is Nuclear Power Green? | Knowledge Labs: In the Know

April 12, 2022 ·

Contributed by: Goran Calic, Associate Professor, Strategic Management

As a society, our energy needs are shifting with a focus on green energy sources. A variety of energy solutions will need to be deployed to facilitate the shift to green energy. Goran Calic, Associate Professor, Strategic Management has been researching green energy, with a particular focus on nuclear power.

How Does Nuclear Stack Up?

When considering whether nuclear power is green, he considers cleanliness and safety. Nuclear has low greenhouse gas emissions and deaths resulting from air pollution and accidents, which is in line with other clean energy sources like hydro, solar, and wind.

Chart depicting the Greenhouse gas emissions, measures in CO2 equivalents, of various energy sources. Traditional sources like Coal, Oil, Natural Gas, and Biomass create much higher emissions than green energy sources like Hydro, Nuclear, Wind, and Solar.

Chart depicting the Death Rate from Accidents and Air Pollution, measured in deaths per terawatt-hour of energy production, of various energy sources. Traditional sources like Coal, Oil, Natural Gas, and Biomass are considered much less safe than green energy sources like Hydro, Nuclear, Wind, and Solar.

What Stands in the Way of Adoption?

How do we explain the gap in adoption of nuclear power? Unfortunately, energy consumers are not easily able to make personal choices about what type of energy they are consuming which means preferences aren’t being reflected right away. As with any type of new technology, it can take quite a while to build out required infrastructure. We saw it early on with solar energy and we are seeing it now with new nuclear technology. Nuclear is getting smaller, it’s getting more technologically advanced, and it’s getting better.

What’s Next for Nuclear?

Nuclear power is often miscategorized. Nuclear, like hydro, solar, and wind, is safe and it is clean. No single technology meets our energy needs. Green sources of energy like nuclear, solar, wind, and hydro meet different needs and need to be used in complementary ways. Only then can we solve the problem of affordable clean and safe energy.

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Interested in learning more about the the sustainable energy industry? Join professor Calic, alumni Bernadette Corpuz, BCom ’90, MBA ’91, General Counsel, OYA Solar and David Van Alstyne, MBA ’07, President, CleanTechonomics Energy Inc. for our upcoming Earth Month event.