September 2004

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Meanwhile, a new Norwegian study asserts that despite low carbon dioxide emissions, nuclear power is a bad choice to produce hydrogen when compared with extracting it from natural gas with carbon capture. The 72-page study is a master’s thesis written by Christian Solli, of the Institute for Industrial Ecology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, at the request of Norway’s Bellona Institute which supported the work. Solli writes that nuclear hydrogen production via thermo-chemical water splitting technologies that are still in the future give rise to large environmental concerns in terms of radioactive waste, depletion of the ozone layer and pollution of ecosystems such as fresh and salt water. Solli says the natural gas option comes out best in eight of 11 environmental categories. The paper does not discuss other risks, such as nuclear accidents. The study is at: www.indecol.ntnu.no/indecolwebnew/publications/
mastertheses/Christian%20Solli%20var04/masterthesis.pdf