Can Nuclear Power Products Mitigate Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Evidence from Global Trade Network.

Since its birth, nuclear power has been a hot topic of academic research while being subject to much controversy. As a new green energy source with zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, nuclear power plays a vital role in combatting global climate change. Based on global databases and various empirical analysis methods, this study aimed to explore the changes in the global nuclear power product trade (GNT) network and its impact on GHG emissions from 2001 to 2018. The main findings are summarized as follows. (1) Global trade in nuclear power products and GHG emissions showed a non-linear and fluctuating growth during the research period. The geographical pattern of GNT not only has prominent spatial heterogeneity, but it also has some spatial reverse coupled with the spatial distribution of global GHG emissions. (2) The overall regression analysis finds that nuclear power product trade had a significant suppressive effect on global GHG emissions and had the greatest influence among all the selected variables. (3) As for the impact of the GNT network on GHG emissions, nuclear power product trade was better able to curb GHG emissions in countries with the dominate positions compared to those with affiliated positions, which reflects the heterogeneous effect of nuclear power product trade on GHG emissions. These results provide further evidence for the dialectical debate on whether nuclear power products contribute to GHG emissions reductions. This paper also provides corresponding recommendations for policymakers.

Genotoxic effects of silver nanoparticles with/without coating in human liver HepG2 cells and in mice.

With the rapid expansion of human exposure to silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), the genotoxicity screening is critical to the biosafety evaluation of nanosilver. This study assessed DNA damage and chromosomal aberration in the human hepatoma cell line (HepG2) as well as the effects on the micronucleus of bone marrow in mice induced by 20 nm polyvinylpyrrolidone-coated nanosilver (PVP-AgNPs) and 20 nm bare nanosilver (AgNPs). Our results showed that the two types of AgNPs, in doses of 20-160 µg/mL, could cause genetic toxicological changes on HepG2 cells. The DNA damage degree of HepG2 cells in 20 nm AgNPs was higher than that in 20 nm PVP-AgNPs, while the 20 nm PVP-AgNPs caused more serious chromosomal aberration than 20 nm AgNPs. Both kinds of AgNPs caused genetic toxicity in a dose-dependent manner in HepG2 cells. In the micronucleus test on mouse bone marrow cells, in doses of 10, 50 and 250 mg/kg body weight administered orally for 28 days once a day, the two kinds of AgNPs have no obvious inhibitory effect on the mouse bone marrow cells, and the effect of chromosome aberration could be documented at the high dose of 250 mg/kg. These results suggest that AgNPs have genotoxic effects in HepG2 cells and limited effects on bone marrow in mice; both in vitro and in vivo tests could be of great importance on the evaluation of genotoxicity of nanosilver. These findings can provide useful toxicological information that can help to assess genetic toxicity of nanosilver in vitro and in vivo.