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Over its lifecycle nuclear energy has low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Many stages of the nuclear fuel chain—mining, milling, transport, fuel fabrication, enrichment, reactor construction, decommissioning, and waste management—use fossil fuels or involve changes to land use, and hence emit some carbon dioxide and conventional pollutants.
Methane (CH 4) is one of the more potent greenhouse gases and is mainly produced by the digestion or decay of biological organisms. It is considered the second most important greenhouse gas, [10] yet the methane cycle in the atmosphere is currently only poorly understood. [11] The amount of methane produced and absorbed yearly varies widely. [10]
The main cause of these changes are the emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities, mainly burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. Carbon dioxide and methane are examples of greenhouse gases. The additional greenhouse effect leads to ocean warming because the ocean takes up most of the additional heat in the climate system. [3]
A "nuclear summer" is a hypothesized scenario in which, after a nuclear winter caused by aerosols inserted into the atmosphere that would prevent sunlight from reaching lower levels or the surface, [61] has abated, a greenhouse effect then occurs due to carbon dioxide released by combustion and methane released from the decay of the organic ...
Kharecha and Hansen estimated that "global nuclear power has prevented an average of 1.84 million air pollution-related deaths and 64 gigatonnes of CO 2-equivalent (GtCO 2-eq) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that would have resulted from fossil fuel burning" and, if continued, it could prevent up to 7 million deaths and 240 GtCO 2-eq emissions ...
The greenhouse effect occurs when greenhouse gases in a planet's atmosphere insulate the planet from losing heat to space, raising its surface temperature. Surface heating can happen from an internal heat source (as in the case of Jupiter ) or come from an external source, such as its host star .
Ocean-atmospheric exchanges rates of CO 2 depend on the concentration of carbon dioxide already present in both the atmosphere and the ocean, temperature, salinity, and wind speed. [38] This exchange rate can be approximated by Henry's law and can be calculated as S = kP, where the solubility (S) of the carbon dioxide gas is proportional to the ...
The greenhouse effect occurs when greenhouse gases in a planet's atmosphere insulate the planet from losing heat to space, raising its surface temperature. Surface heating can happen from an internal heat source (as in the case of Jupiter) or come from an external source, such as its host star.