**MIT Study: Nuclear Power Shutdown Could Lead To Increased Deaths**
MIT Study: Nuclear Power Shutdown Could Lead To Increased Deaths
_Authored by Brian Westenhaus via OilPrice.com,_ (https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/MIT-Study-Nuclear-Power-Shutdown-Could-Lead-To-Increased-Deaths.html)
- A new MIT study indicates that retiring U.S. nuclear power plants could lead to an increase in burning fossil fuels to fill the energy gap, resulting in over 5,000 premature deaths due to increased air pollution.
- Nearly 20 percent of current electricity in the U.S. comes from nuclear power, with a fleet of 92 reactors scattered around the country.
- If more renewable energy sources become available to supply the grid by 2030, air pollution could be curtailed, but there may still be a slight increase in pollution-related deaths.
A new study from Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows (https://news.mit.edu/2023/study-shutting-down-nuclear-power-could-increase-air-pollution-0410)that **if U.S. nuclear power plants are retired, the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas to fill the energy gap could cause more than 5,000 premature deaths**.
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The MIT team took on the questions in the text following in a new study appearing in Nature Energy.
**Nearly 20 percent of today’s electricity in the United States comes from nuclear power. (https://newenergyandfuel.com/http:/newenergyandfuel/com/category/fission/)** The U.S. has the largest nuclear fleet in the world, with 92 reactors scattered around the country. Many of these power plants have run for more than half a century and are approaching the end of their expected lifetimes.
Policymakers are debating whether to retire the aging reactors or reinforce their structures to continue producing nuclear energy, which many consider a low-carbon alternative to climate-warming coal, oil, and natural gas (https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Natural-Gas-A-Comprehensive-Guide-To-The-Worlds-Most-Crucial-Fuel.html).
Now, MIT researchers say there’s another factor to consider in weighing the future of nuclear power: air quality. In addition to being a low carbon-emitting source, nuclear power is relatively clean in terms of the air pollution it generates. Without nuclear power, how would the pattern of air pollution shift, and who would feel its effects?
**The team laid out a scenario in which every nuclear power plant in the country has shut down, and consider how other sources such as coal, natural gas, and renewable energy would fill the resulting energy needs throughout an entire year.**
Their analysis reveals that indeed, air pollution would increase, as coal, gas, and oil sources ramp up to compensate for nuclear power’s absence. This in itself may not be surprising, but the team has put numbers to the prediction, estimating that the increase in air pollution would have serious health effects, resulting in an additional 5,200 pollution-related deaths over a single year.
If, however, more renewable energy sources become available to supply the energy grid, as they are expected to by the year 2030, air pollution would be curtailed, though not entirely. The team found that even under this heartier renewable scenario, there is still a slight increase in air pollution in some parts of the country, resulting in a total of 260 pollution-related deaths over one year.
When they looked at the populations directly affected by the increased pollution, they found that **Black or African American communities – a disproportionate number of whom live near fossil-fuel plants – experienced the greatest exposure.**
Lead author Lyssa Freese, a graduate student in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) said, _**“This adds one more layer to the environmental health and social impacts equation when you’re thinking about nuclear shutdowns, where the conversation often focuses on local risks due to accidents and mining or long-term climate impacts.”**_
Study author Noelle Selin, a professor in MIT’s Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS) and EAPS added, “In the debate over keeping nuclear power plants open, air quality has not been a focus of that discussion. What we found was that air pollution from fossil fuel plants is so damaging, that anything that increases it, such as a nuclear shutdown, is going to have substantial impacts, and for some people more than others.”
The study’s MIT-affiliated co-authors also include Principal Research Scientist Sebastian Eastham and Guillaume Chossière SM ’17, PhD ’20, along with Alan Jenn of the University of California at Davis.
Future phase-outs
When nuclear power plants have closed in the past, fossil fuel use increased in response. In 1985, the clo…
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/mit-study-nuclear-power-shutdown-could-lead-increased-deaths