Right click on the above figure to open it in a new window. Note
the modified text on the left. The DOE report of their first
Quadrennial Technology Review strongly suggests, at least to me,
that we must greatly increase electrification of transport,
manufacturing, and even home heating, using the lowest carbon
sources available, which would be nuclear and renewables. In
other words, we must generate much more electricity and all of
it must come from nuclear and renewables. By replacing all coal
in the United States with natural gas (more than doubling the
amount of natural gas burned today) we would reduce our total
GHG emissions a mere 15%. In comparison, if we replace coal and
natural gas with 30% renewables (which is as far as wind and
solar photovoltaic can scale because they are so intermittent)
and 70% Gen III reactors of the small modular variety, we would
reduce GHG emissions about 57%. Once electricity generation has
been decoupled from GHG production, it can be used to power
compressors to turn nat