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Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Volume 300: debated on Wednesday 12 November 1997

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To ask the President of the Board of Trade what estimate she has made of the typical quantities of carbon dioxide emitted at each stage of processing in the nuclear fuel cycle for each tonne of nuclear fuel fabricated and used to generate electricity. [14717]

It is estimated that nuclear electricity generation leads to emission of about 4 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour of electricity delivered to the final user. Of theses 4 grams, 3.2 grams are emitted in the process of uranium extraction and the remainder during fuel processing.Carbon dioxide emissions from nuclear generation are less than 1 per cent. of equivalent figures for any of the major fossil fuelled electricity generation technologies.