Atomic Energy Costing (Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy)

This book deals with atomic energy costing on three levels: patterns, parameters, and politicization of atomic energy costing. The Introduction provides an overview of some of the debates on the early costing of atomic energy. Chapter 1 examines economic costing and economic consequences; the issue of economic control of atomic energy by government, public sector monopoly, or private enterprise is also discussed. Chapter 2 focuses on the parameters of profits and subsidies and interest and discount rates and how they affect cost-benefit appraisals of nuclear energy. The politicization of atomic energy costing is dealt with via a discussion of alternate agency theoretic and welfare aspects of atomic energy costing in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 presents a detailed survey of the modern costing and regulation debates in the US and UK, while Chapter 5 presents a comparative analysis of atomic power and its regulation in the US, UK and Japan. Chapter 6 sums up the material and attempts to derive some conclusions regarding the atomic energy costing debates.