Nuclear Power Worldwide: Development Plans in Newcomer Countries Negligible

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearch

Authors

At just 4.4 percent, the contribution made by nuclear power to meeting the world’s primary energy requirements is marginal and on the decline. The current nuclear power fleet is outdated with around 200 plants due to be phased out over the next ten years compared to as few as 46 new nuclear power plants under construction worldwide. Yet the nuclear industry, particularly the World Nuclear Association (WNA), is propagating the narrative that there is a plethora of countries interested in constructing their first nuclear plants. The reality is quite different, however. As few as four countries are in the process of building their first nuclear power plants and even these projects are heavily subsidized and experiencing significantly delays. As for other potential newcomers, their plans are, at best, vague, frequently abandoned, or delayed. Given the absence of economic and financial incentive, DIW Berlin has conducted an empirical analysis of other characteristics in potential newcomer countries. Our findings show that these countries tend to have a lack of democratic freedom, something which generally goes hand-in-hand with centralized power structures and weak opposition. Moreover, our analysis suggests that countries exporting nuclear technology more often than not pursue geopolitical objectives, something that currently applies to Russia, in particular. Within international organizations, especially the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) but also Euratom, Germany should be working toward ensuring that countries are not encouraged to construct their first nuclear power plants, that the necessary safety standards are met where nuclear power plants are already built or are in operation, and that as yet unresolved issues relating to decommissioning and the long-term storage of nuclear waste worldwide are addressed
Original languageEnglish
JournalDIW Weekly Report
Volume10
Issue number11
Pages (from-to)163-172
Number of pages10
ISSN1860-3343
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • Economics - nuclear power, geopolitics, investment, democracy

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Simone Jacobi

Publications

  1. "Hilf mir es selbst zu tun"
  2. Global trait–environment relationships of plant communities
  3. Earnings less risk-free interest charge (ERIC) and stock returns: ERIC’s relative and incremental information content in a European sample
  4. For Whom Does It Work? Moderators of Outcome on the Effect of a Transdiagnostic Internet-Based Maintenance Treatment After Inpatient Psychotherapy
  5. Thermal disturbances attenuation using a Lyapunov controller for an ice-clamping device actuated by thermoelectric coolers
  6. Scale in environmental governance: moving from concepts and cases to consolidation
  7. Effect of free air carbon dioxide enrichment combined with two nitrogen levels on growth, yield and yield quality of sugar beet
  8. Sonnenscheinchen
  9. Legal Parameters of Space Tourism
  10. A milp for installation scheduling of offshore wind farms
  11. Das Schreiben, das Interpretieren, die Tatsachen
  12. Economic Evaluation of an Internet-Based Stress Management Intervention Alongside a Randomized Controlled Trial
  13. At what price? IP-related thoughts on new business models for space information
  14. Adventures of Anti-Dialectic
  15. Regulatory focus and thinking about the future versus reality.
  16. Resilient Privacy Preservation Through a Presumed Secrecy Mechanism for Mobility and Localization in Intelligent Transportation Systems
  17. Interpersonal conflicts in executive training
  18. In the Aftermath of Violence. On Being Present and Calling Into Presence
  19. He's Gone Away
  20. Machine Art in the Twentieth Century
  21. Wer wird subventioniert?
  22. Classifying railway stations for strategic transport and land use planning
  23. Investigation of the dynamic grain structure evolution during hot extrusion of En AW-6082
  24. Quantencomputer/Quantenkryptographie
  25. Career-choice readiness in adolescence
  26. Lernmodul „Ressourcenreflexion”
  27. A short review on diffusion coefficients in magnesium alloys and related applications
  28. The Domestication of Luxury in Social Theory
  29. Increasing the acceptance of internet-based mental health interventions in primary care patients with depressive symptoms
  30. Exploring Student Perceptions of the Hidden Curriculum in Responsible Management Education
  31. MDP-based itinerary recommendation using geo-tagged social media
  32. The "All-in-One Module" on Native North America
  33. Is audit committee expertise connected with increased readability of integrated reports
  34. Organizational Restructuring as a Self-Reinforcing Process
  35. Games, Fights, Collaborations