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External costs of nuclear: Greater or less than the alternatives?

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  • Rabl, Ari
  • Rabl, Veronika A.
Abstract
Since Fukushima many are calling for a shutdown of nuclear power plants. To see whether such a shutdown would reduce the risks for health and environment, the external costs of nuclear electricity are compared with alternatives that could replace it. The frequency of catastrophic nuclear accidents is based on the historical record, about one in 25 years for the plants built to date, an order of magnitude higher than the safety goals of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Impacts similar to Chernobyl and Fukushima are assumed to estimate the cost. A detailed comparison is presented with wind as alternative with the lowest external cost. The variability of wind necessitates augmentation by other sources, primarily fossil fuels, because storage at the required scale is in most regions too expensive. The external costs of natural gas combined cycle are taken as 0.6 €cent/kWh due to health effects of air pollution and 1.25 €cent/kWh due to greenhouse gases (at 25€/tCO2eq) for the central estimate, but a wide range of different parameters is also considered, both for nuclear and for the alternatives. Although the central estimate of external costs of the wind-based alternative is higher than that of nuclear, the uncertainty ranges overlap.

Suggested Citation

  • Rabl, Ari & Rabl, Veronika A., 2013. "External costs of nuclear: Greater or less than the alternatives?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 575-584.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:57:y:2013:i:c:p:575-584
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2013.02.028
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Alexis Louaas and Pierre Picard, 2022. "Optimal Nuclear Liability Insurance," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    3. Sungjoo Lee & Byungun Yoon & Juneseuk Shin, 2016. "Effects of Nuclear Energy on Sustainable Development and Energy Security: Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-16, September.
    4. Carlo Andrea Bollino & Francesco Asdrubali & Paolo Polinori & Simona Bigerna & Silvia Micheli & Claudia Guattari & Antonella Rotili, 2017. "A Note on Medium- and Long-Term Global Energy Prospects and Scenarios," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-25, May.
    5. Ladenburg, Jacob & Kim, Jiwon & Zuch, Matteo & Soytas, Ugur, 2024. "Taking the carbon capture and storage, wind power, PV or other renewable technology path to fight climate change? Exploring the acceptance of climate change mitigation technologies – A Danish national," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    6. Shariat Torbaghan, Shahab & Müller, Hannah K. & Gibescu, Madeleine & van der Meijden, Mart & Roggenkamp, Martha, 2015. "The legal and economic impacts of implementing a joint feed-in premium support scheme on the development of an offshore grid," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 263-277.
    7. Ahn, Joongha & Woo, JongRoul & Lee, Jongsu, 2015. "Optimal allocation of energy sources for sustainable development in South Korea: Focus on the electric power generation industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 78-90.
    8. Zerrahn, Alexander, 2017. "Wind Power and Externalities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 245-260.
    9. Spada, Matteo & Paraschiv, Florentina & Burgherr, Peter, 2018. "A comparison of risk measures for accidents in the energy sector and their implications on decision-making strategies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 277-288.
    10. Sascha Samadi, 2017. "The Social Costs of Electricity Generation—Categorising Different Types of Costs and Evaluating Their Respective Relevance," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-37, March.
    11. Taesik Yun & Younggook Kim & Jang-yeop Kim, 2017. "Feasibility Study of the Post-2020 Commitment to the Power Generation Sector in South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-19, February.
    12. Stanley, Conrad, 2020. "Living to Spend Another Day: Exploring Resilience as a New Fourth Goal of Ecological Economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    13. Burgherr, Peter & Hirschberg, Stefan, 2014. "Comparative risk assessment of severe accidents in the energy sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(S1), pages 45-56.
    14. Lee, Sang Hun & Kang, Hyun Gook, 2016. "Integrated framework for the external cost assessment of nuclear power plant accident considering risk aversion: The Korean case," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 111-123.

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