Unsiting Nuclear Power Plants: Decommissioning Risks and Their Land Use Context*

Abstract

Nuclear power plant siting provided the first significant public opportunity to examine nuclear safety and to affect nuclear policy. These discussions were prompted and fueled by perceptions of nuclear risk. Now, as we begin the process of nuclear decommissioning, we are finding that power plant removal—unsiting–is also likely to attract public interest. This paper presents a preliminary survey of how we are likely to react to this emerging theme, applying these findings within a land use context to see if it is likely to produce issues salient to the public. In so doing it also examines how these issues could affect decommissioning timing and type. It suggests that the most likely prospect is that power plants will remain on the landscape long after they are closed.

The End of the Nuclear Era: Nuclear Decommissioning and Its Economic Impacts on U.S. Counties

“…Without the “stigma” or disamenity effect caused by a nuclear plant, people and businesses may be more willing to move into a region (Davis ; Olsen and Wolff ). However, with no federal waste storage facility, nuclear waste must often be stored onsite, preventing full reclamation of the nuclear site and posing potential safety concerns for the community (Pasqualetti and Pijawka ). The resulting impact on amenities is, therefore, important but difficult to predict.…”

“…The decision to decommission a nuclear plant is often made on a purely economic basis: rising repair costs and aging parts, increasingly strict Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulations, and the appeal of cheaper, less capital‐intensive electricity sources incentivize utility companies to opt for closure, generally with little consideration for the impact of decommissioning on the surrounding community. Despite the dependence of regions across the U.S. on the “nuclear economy,” only a few studies have examined the economic impacts of nuclear decommissioning, and most have focused on a few case studies (e.g., Cooper ; Haller ; Kotval and Mullin ; Pasqualetti and Pijawka ). This paper is intended to build on existing research by examining the impact of decommissioning on regional economies throughout the U.S., and the potential challenges that plant closure poses for economic development both in the immediate aftermath of closure and the long run.…”

The political economy of nuclear energy

“…There is to date only limited experience in decommissioning nuclear plants, 47 so economic estimates remain uncertain. 48,49…”

Interpreting regional and local diversities of the social acceptance of agricultural AD plants in the rural space of the Moravian-Silesian Region (Czech Republic)

“…A question arises then, how the coal, representing an important source of energy, might be replaced. In the Czech Republic, nuclear energy is very popular by tradition (its share in the energy mix of the Czech Republic has increased from one-tenth to circa one-fifth in the last quarter of a century), yet this type of energy raises plenty of controversies related to both the safety of its operation and the storage of radioactive waste (Pasqualetti and Pijawka, 1996;Fiorini, 2014. It seems that an effective use of renewable energy sources or utilisation of waste energy (Zechina, 2014) might be an option, and it could partially reduce the dependency of the country on exhaustible resources of energy.…”