The external costs of nuclear power: Ex ante damages and lay risks
Interest has been growing in embedding the external costs of fuel cycles resulting in electricity generation into prices. In any attempt to internalize these costs for the nuclear cycle, the remost but real possibilities of accidents and the wide gap between lay perceptions and expert assessments of such risks must be taken into account. This paper discusses this including the following topics: An expected utility model of power plant operations/accident risks; simulation; comparison of experts versus lay risks; comparison of experts versus lay risk literature; simulation of expert versus lay risks. Current practice in estimating the damages from accidents at nuclear power plants appear to ignore significant features of the problem from the perspective of economic analysis. Individual aversion to risk, the exante perspective in decision making under uncertainty, and lay risk perception are all conceptually important elements of a damage estimate that accords with observation of behavior and the theory that underlies it but that are ignored by common practice. 18 refs., 1 tab.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 28952
- Journal Information:
- American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 75, Issue 5; Other Information: PBD: Dec 1993
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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