The human cost of extracting fuel is missing from all energy sources, but it would unlikely change the full picture. Coal mining has a very long history of harvesting human lives, being one of the most deadly profession that have ever existed. Oil in turn has been in the center of wars since world war 1 and the collective number of human lives lost is hard to even imagine. Natural gas as a by-product of oil and coal would only share in the deaths caused by the others.
The more closer comparison would be between rare-earth metals needed in renewables and the uranium in nuclear fuel, but which one wins is questionable. There are more children picking through e-waste than there are children picking through uranium. Mining uranium however is not that great either. Then again, mining rare earth metals aren't great either. Feel free to point to any sources that compare the two in terms of produced energy.
> the environmental cost of nuclear waste disposal
We can compare that to fossil fuels method of waste disposal. Nuclear could release it waste into the air over a long period of time, letting the radiation slowly spread out over a very large area through rain and weather. This is not accounted in fossil fuel as CO2 is only one kind of pollution, with coal power plants actually creating more radiation waste per watt produced than a nuclear power plant. Fossil fuels waste just happens to be released into the air and spread out over a large area/time rather than being stockpiled. Renewables should fare better but you would still need to account for e-waste and CO2 emissions from construction and waste recycling.
All in all, fossil fuels would not look better in comparison to nuclear. The human cost in fossil fuel production would be humongous and the environmental cost of waste disposal would dwarf anything that nuclear create.
Good points. To be clear, my point was not that other energy sources are so much better than nuclear, but rather that we globally need to reduce energy spending instead of looking for a unicorn non-polluting energy source.
In this regard, i believe cracking down on planned obsolescence, implementing strong (>30 years) warranties on every single thing you can buy, and promoting cooperative economic models (reducing "waste" due to competition) would do a lot more for the environment than any plan our governments have put forward.
> Feel free to point to any sources that compare the two in terms of produced energy.
I don't have any. And to be honest, the international supply chain is such a grim landscape that i believe it would be very hard to assess the overall impact of this or that resource being exploited. But all studies agree that the less resources we use, the better is it for all parties.
The more closer comparison would be between rare-earth metals needed in renewables and the uranium in nuclear fuel, but which one wins is questionable. There are more children picking through e-waste than there are children picking through uranium. Mining uranium however is not that great either. Then again, mining rare earth metals aren't great either. Feel free to point to any sources that compare the two in terms of produced energy.
> the environmental cost of nuclear waste disposal
We can compare that to fossil fuels method of waste disposal. Nuclear could release it waste into the air over a long period of time, letting the radiation slowly spread out over a very large area through rain and weather. This is not accounted in fossil fuel as CO2 is only one kind of pollution, with coal power plants actually creating more radiation waste per watt produced than a nuclear power plant. Fossil fuels waste just happens to be released into the air and spread out over a large area/time rather than being stockpiled. Renewables should fare better but you would still need to account for e-waste and CO2 emissions from construction and waste recycling.
All in all, fossil fuels would not look better in comparison to nuclear. The human cost in fossil fuel production would be humongous and the environmental cost of waste disposal would dwarf anything that nuclear create.