So i have a golden cow I need to defend…
TL, DR
Nuclear Power plants do not produce CO2. They do produce Nuclear Waste which can be recycled almost in total. Please replace CO2 with GDP.
So my background is the following.
Former contractor at the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Currently an Industrial Electrical Worker for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
I specialize in datacenters and outages for power plants.
Nuclear Reactors do not directly produce CO2. When people mention CO2 in that context, it’s in refrence to the life cycle of the plant. So how much CO2 is created during construction, maintaince, minning, and refueling. Now this can be applied to ALL construction. That’s everything from a car factory to an office building. So even your solar panels produce CO2 by that standard. Someone had to mine the minerals to make it. Also, those solar panels will need to be replaced at some point. Now the bulk of most of the CO2 is coming from the construction phase of the plant. Think giant trucks moving tones of dirt and rubble. In terms of mining, the materials grade matters as well. So higher grade ore will need less processing and give off less CO2. Recycling spent material gives off the most negligible amounts of CO2. I think the most efficient recycling centers are posted in France at the moment, though I am aware of American projects that are underway. You can get nearly 100% of the spent fuel to be reused. You will have to hide away the leftovers, but most onsite fast burning reactors have ample storage space for that.
From a game mechanic perspective, if CO2 life cycle is going to be counted (which it shouldn’t, your talking decades to reach the final total and reforestation efforts should be able to mitigate that) it should be a separate graph from CO2 emissions. Everything involved in building should cause this to tick up. Or CO2 should be removed entirely from Nuclear power plants, as they do not emmit any CO2. Alternatively, replace CO2 with GDP.
Typically, companies like building Datacenters and Factories in places with lots of nuclear power. You cant beat the price point. These projects need a LOT of power, to the point it could make or break a project. So the GDP uptick is justified in that perspective and in a sence, still capture the life cycle CO2 emissions from the plant. As GDP negatively impacts the environment.
Still loving the game by the way!