• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.14 no.2 s.42
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• pp.140-146
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• 2005

In this study, a quantitative environmental impacts assessment was performed for various power technologies with a lift cycle assessment (LCA) method. The LCA is regarded as a useful tool far analyzing diverse environmental impacts at a local, regional, and global aspect. The investigated power plants such as nuclear, coal, and LNC power systems were selected because they took share over $90\%$ of domestic elec-tricity supply in Korea. Furthermore, a wind power technology was included as a representative energy source out of Korean renewable energy systems. According to the three geological aspects, environmental impacts had been categorized into eight types. For these impact categories, characterization had been carried out for comparing environmental burdens of power systems under consideration. Then, normalization had been done in order to gain a better understanding of the relative size among impact categories.