UN Report Trumpets Nuclear as Having the Lowest Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Any Electricity Generation Source, Among Other Environmental Co-Benefits

The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) recently released a report entitled “Life Cycle Assessment of Electricity Generation Options” (UNECE Report; Report).  The report analyzes the environmental profiles of the full lifecycle of various technologies in order to evaluate their “all in” environmental costs—such as greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), human toxicity, water use, and other environmental and health metrics of different electricity sources—including wind, solar, coal, gas, hydro, and nuclear. In a finding that may be very surprising to many, but likely not to those in the nuclear field, nuclear had some of the smallest impacts on the environment out of all the electricity sources analyzed.