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Comment by flashfaffe2 | Hacker News Reader

Actually the notion of cleaner should be taken with pinch of salt.

I was very pro nuclear until it came out of my mind.

Given its construction, the nuclear plan can have an intensive use of the sulfur hexafluoride ( SF6 Gas) Which according to Wikipedia

"According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, SF 6 is the most potent greenhouse gas that has been evaluated, with a global warming potential of 23,900 times that of CO 2 when compared over a 100-year period"

This puzzled me as pro- nuclear tend not to mention it.

Unless new technology come up addressing this issue, I would not judge nuclear as clean for the time being.

Page Wiki for additional information:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur_hexafluoride

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How much is released during construction? It sounds fairly toxic - is it captured or in a closed loop circle?

Based on the ref below it can be up to 2tons a year. Again this comes from french nuclear plant which I know are very different from US or Japan ones.

https://www-boursorama-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bourso...

Unfortunately not captured. Again this depending of how to he nuclear plant has been engineered.

Based on the ref below (in French) Up to 2000 kg can be released each year.

https://www-boursorama-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bourso...

That's still peanuts compared to coal. Largest plant had 18 billion kgs of CO2 released last year. 2000 * 23,900 = 47.8 million kg of CO2 equivalent. Obviously the prior calculation also depends on plant size, etc.

Réf wiki:

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, SF 6 is the most potent greenhouse gas that has been evaluated, with a global warming potential of 23,900 times that of CO 2 when compared over a 100-year period.[37] Sulfur hexafluoride is inert in the troposphere and stratosphere and is extremely long-lived, with an estimated atmospheric lifetime of 800–3,200 years.

Yes I saw that. Comment was comparing the CO2 emissions of the largest fossil fuel plant with a nuclear plant that releases 2000 KG of SF 6. If estimate the impact of SF 6 in terms of CO2 as 23,900 times the CO2 weight, than 2000 KG of SF 6 would be 2000 * 23900 = 47.8 million equivalent KG of CO2. Largest plant fossil fuel plant had emissions of 18 billion KG of CO2.

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