Just like solar panels and wind turbines, nuclear power plants are emissions free during operation. The 'smoke' you might have seen in images depicting nuclear plants is actually just water vapour.
Over their lifetime, all energy sources have an emissions footprint. For instance, the manufacturing, transport and disposal of solar panels causes emissions. Compared to all energy sources, nuclear energy has the lowest lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions.
Nuclear provides around 25% of global clean electricity. Only hydro power provides more clean power than nuclear. Nuclear power provides more clean electricity than solar or wind, contributing more to global decarbonisation.
Nuclear energy will have an increasingly important role in decarbonisation globally. Recently a pledge was launched at COP28 in Dubai to triple global nuclear energy capacity by 2050 which 31 countries including the US, UK and France have now signed.
Nuclear energy requires the least amount of land of any energy source. Compared to silicon on-ground solar panels, nuclear uses around 63 times less land. Compared to wind, nuclear uses anywhere from 27 times less land to over 823 times less land when considering the total project site of the wind farm. Even when specific to the direct footprint of the wind turbines nuclear still needs around 30% less land.
Moreover, if Australia was to embrace nuclear there would be additional land saved from avoided transmission and firming infrastructure.
Just like coal plants, nuclear plants require cooling water for plants that have steam turbines. The majority of water used is withdrawn and then released back into the original water source either through direct once through cooling (water released directly back into the water source at a higher temperature) or indirect cooling with cooling towers (heat discharged in cooling towers and water released back into water source). There is also the option for dry cooling where radiators are used to cool water. Whilst these processes require withdrawing large amounts of water, the amount of water consumed is small and is similar to a coal plant.
No energy source is renewable. For example, coal power plants require coal mining, solar farms require materials to manufacture the solar panels and nuclear power plants require uranium mining. Compared to other low-carbon energy sources, nuclear has the lowest overall material use including fuel.
