Clean Energy

We need deep decarbonization to hit our climate goals. Nuclear energy can help get us there. As our largest source of clean energy, nuclear is critical to reducing emissions.

Nuclear Energy is Clean Energy

Every year, nuclear-generated electricity saves our atmosphere from more than 470 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions that would otherwise come from fossil fuels. That’s the same as taking over 100 million passenger vehicles off the road.

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#Nuclear generates more than half of our country's carbon-free energy and is essential to any clean energy solution.

Studies have shown that an affordable, reliable, clean energy future includes a significant share of nuclear energy. Because nuclear energy can generate carbon-free electricity 24/7/365, unlike any other form of energy, it is essential to creating our clean energy future.

Is Nuclear Energy Good for the Environment?

Yes! The Earth is a set of complex and interdependent systems. Since 2009, scientists have estimated that the Earth has nine planetary boundaries with key metrics that, if crossed, may cause significant and possibly irreversible environmental changes. Climate change is only one of the nine interrelated boundaries. When it comes to thinking about what is “good” for the environment, it is important to think about electricity sources that don’t produce carbon, but there are other things to consider, too, like resource efficiency and how toxic outputs are. Those nine things here:



Life cycle assessments are a powerful standardized tool used to quantify and weigh the environmental impacts of a product or service – from the resources and processes they use, to the waste they emit. Impact categories, much like planetary boundaries, include climate change, but also measure other effects like toxicity and land use.  

In 2022, the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Europe published a report on a life cycle assessment on the global average environmental impact for the delivery of 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity to the grid in 2020. The report looks at all the environmental impacts from different energy sources across their lifetimes, including mining, construction, generation, and post-operations management, and compares them to the expected amount of electricity to be generated. Nuclear energy generates reliable, carbon-free electricity, but this analysis proves that it also has some of the lowest environmental and human health impacts per megawatt-hour when compared to other electricity sources. And this is found consistently across different analyses, according to United Nations climate reports.  

Does Nuclear Energy Cause Air Pollution?

No! That's because nuclear fission generates electricity without the harmful byproducts that some other energy sources emit. Here are a handful of the pollutants that nuclear energy keeps out of the air we breathe:

• Nitrogen oxide (NOx), which produces smog
• Sulfur dioxide (SO2), which produces acid rain
• Particulate matter, like smoke and dust
• Mercury, a harmful neurotoxin
• Carbon dioxide (CO2), a key contributor to climate change.

These pollutants contribute to stroke, heart disease, neurological disease, lung cancer and respiratory diseases, including asthma. Without nuclear power, NOx and SO2 levels in the U.S. would increase. By keeping existing nuclear power plants online and building next-generation nuclear facilities in the United States, we also protect the health of our communities.

Since nuclear energy doesn’t produce carbon emissions, using it helps keep the air clean. How clean, you might ask? U.S. nuclear’s emissions avoided in 2023 are the equivalent to:

• The lifetime emission absorption of 114.8 million trees planted
• 151.9 million tons of waste recycled instead of landfilled
• C02 sequestered by 508.6 million acres of U.S. forests
• 2.4 million railcars of coal burned

A Surprising Comparison: Nuclear, Solar, Wind, and Other Clean-Air Sources

Solar, hydropower, wind and geothermal electricity sources also are emission-free and are an important and growing part of our clean energy future, but nuclear supplies more electricity than each of them. Nuclear energy is the total package: clean, reliable and low land use. It is the only form of clean energy that can supply power around-the-clock, anytime day or night.

Nuclear energy has one of the lowest environmental impacts of all energy sources, comparable with the total impacts of wind and solar. It doesn't emit air pollution, it safely keeps its used fuel out of the environment, and it requires a very small amount of land. Actually, nuclear energy produces more electricity on less land than any other clean energy source.