Subsidy to Nuclear Power Through Price‐anderson Liability Limit

Dubin, Jeffrey A.; Rothwell, Geoffrey

doi:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1990.tb00645.x

Cited by 54 publications

(23 citation statements)

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“…Even today, nuclear power remains un-insurable in the free market [61] and governments have had to provide some form of limited liability for nuclear utilities for any company to consider building a reactor. Largely depending on the geographic location of the nuclear power plant, the devastating economic consequences of a catastrophic nuclear accident are in the order of hundreds of billions [65][66][67]. Thus, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) concluded that the liability limits were sufficiently significant to constitute a "subsidy"; however, a quantification of the amount of this nuclear insurance subsidy was not attempted [68].…”

Section: Nuclear Energy Economic Sustainability and Insurabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Limitations of Nuclear Power as a Sustainable Energy Source

Pearce

2012

Sustainability

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This paper provides a review and analysis of the challenges that nuclear power must overcome in order to be considered sustainable. The results make it clear that not only do innovative technical solutions need to be generated for the fundamental inherent environmental burdens of nuclear energy technology, but the nuclear industry must also address difficult issues of equity both in the present and for future generations. The results show that if the concept of just sustainability is applied to the nuclear energy sector a global large-scale sustainable nuclear energy system to replace fossil fuel combustion requires the following: (i) a radical improvement in greenhouse gas emissions intensity by improved technology and efficiency through the entire life cycle to prevent energy cannibalism during rapid growth; (ii) the elimination of nuclear insecurity to reduce the risks associated with nuclear power so that the free market can indemnify it without substantial public nuclear energy insurance subsidies; (iii) the elimination of radioactive waste at the end of life and minimization of environmental impact during mining and operations; and (iv) the nuclear industry must regain public trust or face obsolescence as a swarm of renewable energy technologies quickly improve both technical and economic performance.

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Section: Nuclear Energy Economic Sustainability and Insurabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Limitations of Nuclear Power as a Sustainable Energy Source

Pearce

2012

Sustainability

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“…The work presented by Dublin and Rothwell is conservative (e.g., no health effects are included in the analysis). Thus, the estimated insurance subsidy per reactor was $60 million in 1982 [24]. The 1988 amendments to the PAA increased the total provided coverage to $7 billion, which consequently reduces the subsidy per reactor to $22 million.…”

Section: The Price-anderson Act (Paa) and Us Government Indirect Numentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To date, the most complete and comprehensive analysis was performed by Dublin and Rothwell in 1990 [23]. The study [24] aimed to compare the insurance premiums nuclear power plant operators currently pay under the PAA to the premiums weathered if facilities were responsible for full liability coverage in the absence of PAA limits. The work presented by Dublin and Rothwell is conservative (e.g., no health effects are included in the analysis).…”

Section: The Price-anderson Act (Paa) and Us Government Indirect Numentioning

confidence: 99%

Nuclear Insurance Subsidies Cost from Post-Fukushima Accounting Based on Media Sources

Laureto

Pearce

2016

Sustainability

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Quantification of nuclear liability insurance is difficult without arbitrary liability caps; however, post-mortem calculations can be used to calculate insurance costs. This study analyzes the Fukushima (Daiichi) nuclear power plant disaster to quantify the cost per unit electricity ($/kWh) of nuclear energy from the lifetime of the plant after accounting for the true cost of the liability needed to cover the damages from the nuclear disaster determined from news reports. These costs are then compared to the cost of electricity currently paid by Japanese consumers, and then are aggregated to determine the indirect subsidy for nuclear power providers in both Japan and the USA. The results show that the reported costs of the Fukushima nuclear disaster are $20-525 billion, which results in a real insurance cost from the lifetime of electricity produced at the plants between $0.22-5.78/kWh. These values are far higher than the current insurance costs by Japanese law of $0.01/kWh and even the total costs consumers pay for electricity. Although the spread in the input costs is large and the reported metrics are incomplete, the nuclear insurance subsidy is clearly substantial in Japan and in the USA. Ideally, energy sources should be economically sustainable without the need for a government insurance subsidy. For the electricity market to function effectively and efficiently in all other countries using nuclear power, the insurance costs should be reported accurately and included in nuclear electricity costs without arbitrary government liability caps.

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“…These costs are called loading costs and refer to the overheads generated by the normal functioning of the insurance (administration charges, management costs, etc.). They are traditionally estimated to be about 30% of the objective value of the risk (Dubin and Rothwell 1990;Liston-Heyes 1998, 2000). If we take them C = c Á E(x), with c = 0.3, Eq.…”

Section: The Calculation Of the Insurance Premiummentioning

confidence: 99%