Climate: The nuclear option.(High Tech Analysis)

Byline: DAN WHIPPLE

BOULDER, Colo., June 13 (UPI) -- The accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is creating pressure for a variety of potential technological solutions, some new, and some old -- like nuclear-powered electricity generation.

On the credit side of the account ledger, electricity from nukes offers a considerable potential benefit, at least as far as greenhouse gas emissions are concerned. A 2001 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration found that a single 1,000 megawatt nuclear powerplant could displace the equivalent of about 2.1 million tons of carbon from a coal-fired powerplant, 1.6 million tons from an oil-fired plant and 1.0 million tons from a natural-gas plant.

Furthermore, the report said, if it had not been for nuclear power, between 1960 and 2000, an additional 3.1 billion metric tons of carbon would have been generated by U.S. electric plants.

In 2000, the EIA estimated that all U.S. powerplants released 641.6 million metric tons of carbon. This means nuclear power saved five years' worth of U.S. carbon emissions.

With coal-fired powerplants becoming the generation technology of choice -- particularly in coal-rich developing countries such as China and India, as well as the United States -- the potential of virtually carbon-free nuclear energy to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions is impressive.

President George W. Bush has called for building more nuclear powerplants to meet future energy demand and fight increasing greenhouse gases. His proposal has been supported, tentatively, by groups that focus on global-warming issues, and opposed by many environmental groups traditionally suspicious of nuclear power.