Rhode Island Greenhouse Gas 

Inventory  :Study Guide

       

Question #7:  The Tricky Nature of Nuclear Power

Only 2% of the electricity consumed in Rhode Island in 1990 was generated in-state, rising to 20% in 1996, after Ocean State Power and the re-powered Manchester Street Station came online. 

In the years covered by the inventory, three major electric utilities supplied over 99% of the end users of Rhode Island: Narragansett Electric, Blackstone Valley Electric and Newport Electric. The electricity they provide is supplied to them through the New England Power Pool grid.

Narragansett Electric receives power from in excess of twenty five producers of electricity outside of Rhode Island. Of these, five are nuclear powerplants. 

Why are nuclear powerplants a preferable energy producer in terms of greenhouse gas emissions? Hint -- look at the table for Imported Electricity in the Appendices of the Inventory site.

What would happen if Narragansett Electric decided to phase out receiving electricity from Brayton Point (which it received some 8,487,134 MWh from in 1996) and divided the amount of electricity Brayton had provided between the five nuclear plants? How much less carbon would be produced? 

Another point to think about: What are some of the problems that come with relying on nuclear power? 

 

*Global Warming Glossary & Definitions of Terms  (EPA) in PDF format

 

*Rhode Island Greenhouse Gas Inventory

  :Imported Electricity 

 

  :Appendix E: Imported Electricity

      - see section on Narragansett Electric 1996

    

*Information on Greenhouse Gas emissions of Nuclear power production  (from The Uranium Institute)

 

*Mass PIRG data on Brayton Point Powerplant emissions.

 

*"Health and Environmental Issues Linked to the Nuclear Fuel Chain"(prepared under contract to the
Canadian Environmental Advisory Council)

 

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