Transforming the energy system is at the core of the dedicated sustainable development goal on energy within the new United Nations development agenda. This publication explores the possible contribution of nuclear energy to addressing the issues of sustainable development through a large selection of indicators. It reviews the characteristics of nuclear power in comparison with alternative sources of electricity supply, according to economic, social and environmental pillars of sustainability. The findings summarized in this publication will help the reader to consider, or reconsider, the contribution that can be made by the development and operation of nuclear power plants in contributing to more sustainable energy systems.

Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Energy Sciences, grade: 20 out of 20, University of St Andrews, course: Sustainable Development, language: English, abstract: In the face of growing concerns about climate change, the calls for a shift away from fossil fuels as the dominant source of the world's energy are becoming more pronounced. Ultimately, the goal is energy production without further pollution. One option that has been proposed as a possible alternative is nuclear energy. However, debates continue to rage, especially in the field of sustainable development, about the suitability of nuclear power to replace fossil fuels. Using France and Japan as case studies, this essay argues that in the quest for sustainable development, nuclear energy will solve more problems than it will create, and it must be embraced as a vital part of the energy mix going forward.

Sustainable Nuclear Power provides non-nuclear engineers, scientists and energy planners with the necessary information to understand and utilize the major advances in the field. The book demonstrates that nuclear fission technology has the abundance and attainability to provide centuries of safe power with minimal greenhouse gas generation. It also addresses the safety and disposal issues that have plagued the development of the nuclear power industry and scared planners and policy makers as well as the general public for more than two decades. In addition, the authors provide a Companion website, http://books.elsevier.com/companions, which gives access to government reports and case studies *No need for a background in nuclear science! This book guides engineers, scientists and energy professionals through a concise and easy-to-understand overview of key safety and sustainability issues affecting their work. *Details the very latest information about today's safest and most energy-efficient reactor designs and reprocessing procedures. *Brings to light the fears and hesitation of using nuclear energy and explains that technologies and procedures for safe production and processing are available today.

Nuclear power is often characterized as a "green technology." Technologies are rarely, if ever, socially isolated artefacts. Instead, they materially represent an embodiment of values and priorities. Nuclear power is no different. It is a product of a particular political economy and the question is whether that political economy can helpfully engage with the challenge of addressing the environmental crisis on a finite, inequitable and shared planet. For developing countries like India, who are presently making infrastructure investments which will have long legacies, it is imperative that these investments wrestle with such questions and prove themselves capable of sufficiency, greater equality and inclusiveness. This book offers a critique of civilian nuclear power as a green energy strategy for India and develops and proposes an alternative "synergy for sustainability." It situates nuclear power as a socio-technical infrastructure embodying a particular development discourse and practice of energy and economic development. The book reveals the political economy of this arrangement and examines the latter’s ability to respond to the environmental crisis. Manu V. Mathai argues that the existing overwhelmingly growth-focused, highly technology-centric approach for organizing economic activity is unsustainable and needs to be reformed. Within this imperative for change, nuclear power in India is found to be and is characterized as an "authoritarian technology." Based on this political economy critique the book proposes an alternative, a synergy of ideas from the fields of development economics, energy planning and science, technology and society studies.

This book presents the results of a study of long-term perspectives for energy development of the world and its main regions, performed at the Siberian Energy Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Energy Systems Institute since 1998). The methodological approach, the 10-regional Global Energy Model (GEM-10R) of the world energy system, energy demand forecasts, data on energy resources and energy technologies, and results of calculations based on mathematical models are described. Particular attention is given to determination of energy requirements and peculiarities of its technological structure that are caused by mankind's necessary transition to sustainable development. Economic and ecological consequences of constraints on greenhouse gas emissions and scales of nuclear energy production, as well as assistance of developed countries to developing ones are investigated. Problems of cheap oil, gas and uranium resources depletion, fuel price growth, synthetic fuel production and new energy technology implementation are analysed. The book is intended for specialists in energy and economics, as well as students and postgraduate students of technical high schools and universities. ac