ANS Approves New Policy Statement for Climate Change Policy

The American Nuclear Society (ANS) considers nuclear energy an essential component to policies designed to address risks presented by a changing climate as well as future energy needs.

Recognizing the changes that have taken place in the Earth’s climate over the past 50 years, the Society believes that carbon-reduction policies should not explicitly privilege any one energy source over another. Policies should evaluate energy sources based upon their ability to reliably contribute to meeting carbon reduction goals.

“Government agencies, the U.S. military, investment firms, and insurance companies are making infrastructure, economic, and actuarial decisions based on their own analyses of climate change impacts,” noted Donald R. Hoffman, President of ANS. “Other nations are making similar efforts to assess their economic and national security programs in consideration of climate uncertainties. None of these entities should be doing so without including nuclear energy in their evaluations and decisions.”

Nuclear energy delivers large amounts of reliable, economically competitive electricity with no carbon emissions during reactor operations, and has among the lowest lifecycle carbon emissions of any energy source. Additionally, nuclear energy is the only such energy technology with a proven capability of delivering large amounts of baseload electricity essential to modern industrial societies.