Four Nuclear Myths

Amory Lovins argues that nuclear power is an obsolete and costly technology that retards climate protection by diverting resources from more effective alternatives. He challenges the 'baseload' myth, asserting that grid reliability is a collective attribute of all plants rather than an individual requirement. He further disputes the 'footprint' myth, providing evidence that nuclear power's total land use—including the fuel cycle—is significantly higher than that of wind and solar. Lovins contends that a diverse portfolio of energy efficiency and distributed renewables is more cost-effective and faster to deploy than nuclear power, which he claims is failing in the global marketplace due to a lack of private investment and escalating costs.

• New nuclear power is significantly less effective at climate protection than energy efficiency and distributed renewables, saving approximately 2–20 times less carbon per dollar and 20–40 times less carbon per year.
• The 'baseload' requirement is a fallacy because grid reliability is a statistical attribute of all combined plants; no single plant is perfectly reliable, as evidenced by U.S. coal, nuclear, and gas plants being shut down between 10.6% and 12.3% of the time from 2003–07.
• Nuclear power's total land footprint is vastly underestimated by advocates; while some claim a 1-GW plant uses only a third of a square mile, evidence-based literature suggests the total system land use is at least 14.3 to 14.5 square miles.
• Wind power's land use is often overstated by including undisturbed land between turbines; the actual physical footprint of equipment and infrastructure for 900 average MW is only 0.2–2 square miles.
• The 'portfolio' argument that all options, including nuclear, are necessary for climate stabilization is unsupported; research by Pacala and Socolow indicates that no single element of their proposed stabilization wedges is indispensable.
• Nuclear power is experiencing a global market collapse, with no new units coming online worldwide in 2008 and a lack of private equity for proposed U.S. units despite subsidies.
• The French nuclear model, often cited as a success, has suffered from significant cost escalations, with real capital costs per kilowatt increasing approximately 3.5 times between 1970 and 2000.

APA

Lovins, A. B. (2009). Four Nuclear Myths. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2009-09_FourNuclearMyths.pdf

Chicago

Lovins, Amory B. Four Nuclear Myths. RMI, 2009. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2009-09_FourNuclearMyths.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Lovins |first1=Amory B. |title=Four Nuclear Myths |publisher=RMI |date=13 October 2009 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2009-09_FourNuclearMyths.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{lovins2009four, author = {Lovins, Amory B.}, title = {{Four Nuclear Myths}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2009}, month = oct, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2009-09_FourNuclearMyths.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }