Jerry Poradek Urban Systems Project Office C. Comparisons with Conventional Systems It is essential in a complex society not only to evaluate the environmental impact of the direct operation of the various types of power plants, but to define the pollution generated from sources needed to build, supply and remove waste material from the power plant for its life cycle. In order to perform this evaluation, the typical amounts of material needed for the plant fabrication must be identified; the types and amounts of energy needed to extract and process the material must be known; and the amount of transport mileage to the plant site and the transportation means is required. With this information, the amount of energy required for a given increment of electrical power generation can then be summed. The pollution associated with this identified type and magnitude of energy can be defined. Adding to this information, the estimates of electrical demand growth through the years can produce a energy and materials use scenario for any basic type of electrical power generation system whether it is fossil fuel, nuclear or solar powered. As part of the SPS study, a computer program for this energy and resources comparison is being developed. Once the magnitude of the pollutants are identified, the effects of such pollution can be better defined. Table VIII-C-1 is a brief summary of some of the pollution estimated produced from three different type of plants of equal 10 GW electrical output size. This table is a first approximation of the identified pollutants. Many assumptions were made such as average sulfur content of coal, transport distances, and types of transport, etc. These assumptions attempt to approach U. S. averages for the various factors. The factors listed are those for which direct comparisons on magnitudes of pollution can be defined. At this time, no attempt has been made to identify the difference in the effects of these pollutant levels. All values listed are Level I category only.
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