CLIMATE IMPACT & CARBON FOOTPRINT

Contrary to popular conception, nuclear power generation is NOT carbon-free, especially when looked at in terms of total life-cycle emissions. Recent estimates have nuclear power creating 7 times more carbon emissions than wind power per megawatt-hour, and comparisons with renewable power are even more lopsided when time-to-build for new facilities are considered. Read a full evaluation of nuclear power as a proposed solution to global warming, by Mark Jacobson of Stanford University. 

Meanwhile, climate disruption also has a huge impact on the safety of nuclear power. Sea level rise and increasingly violent storm surges threaten to cause further damage to plant foundations, knock out critical offsite power, and affect plant access in coming decades.

Seabrook Station is among the three U.S. nuclear plants most vulnerable to storm surge inundation.

The issues of sea level rise and storm surges have yet to be adequately considered or addressed, even though the Fukushima catastrophe made it very clear that coastal nuclear plants are uniquely fragile—and with catastrophic implications.

								 								 Seabrook Station is uniquely vulnerable to storm surge inundation. Aerial photo courtesy of Ed Friedman, POV Heli-services

Our Ongoing Role

For over 50 years, SAPL has played an essential and ongoing part in keeping Seabrook Station in check, preventing Seabrook from shrinking the evacuation zone to a harrowing one-mile radius, forcing the plant to end harbor seal deaths caused by their water intake pipes, getting state officials to distribute essential potassium iodide (KI) radiation protection, alerting the public to waste shipment issues and security lapses, and more.

We are here to inform the public of the facts and to keep people apprised of regulatory and legislative issues as they occur. The fact is, we are the people who will suffer the consequences of mismanagement and poor planning, and we are the ones who will pay the cost in the event of an emergency, so it’s up to us to stay informed and take action.