Atomic Energy Costing

In the centennial year of the birth of Sir John Cockcroft, first master of my Cam bridge College, Churchill, and the first man to split the atomic nucleus by artificial means, it is indeed relevant to consider the outcome of his efforts at developing atomic power. From the earliest days of the construction of Calder Hall-the first nuclear power station in Britain-and the establishment of the British Atomic Re search Center at Harwell, and the Chalk River Nuclear Station in Canada, through the "Windscale" nuclear accident in Britain, up to the present, when some 20% of UK energy is derived from nuclear power, the Cockcroft legacy is felt. As the British historian Mark Goldie put it, in the "pure and sanguine 1950s," Cockcroft had almost absolute "faith in 'peaceful atoms' and in the boundless, almost cost free, energy that atoms would soon produce" (Goldie, 1997, p. 21). But, as the eminent economist Frank Hahn recalled, "the only failing Cockcroft had" was "that he wasn't up to much in economics. " Indeed, Hahn recalled that he "had to explain" to Cockcroft "the economic notion of optimum durability" as it related to the "interest rate" in the context of building Churchill College with "hand-made bricks. " After his explana tion, as Hahn recalled "Cockcroft smiled and proceeded to order more hand-made bricks" (Hahn, 1997, p. 27).

Klappentext

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.

Inhalt
Introduction, Chronology and Background: a New World with Free Energy.- Key Questions and Debates, Ancient and Modern.- 1 Ancient Debates over Costing and Control of Atomic Energy, 194654.- A. Economic Costing, Consequences, and Controlthe Cowles Project and Isard Studies and Lerner's approach.- B. Variations on the theme: the UK CaseBlackett, Isard, Cherwell, Harrod and Cockcroft.- 2 Patterns, Paramteters, and Politicization of Atomic Energy Costing.- A. the Cost Enigma and Private Enterprise: profits and subsidies, interest and discount rates, private and social costs.- B. Politicization of Atomic Energy Costing: a new political economy perspective.- 3 Agency Theoretic and Welfare Aspects of Atomic Energy Costing and Regulation.- A. Alternate Principal-Agent approaches to Public Utilities and their Regulation: from control and capture to regulatory environment.- B. Pigovian and Coasian aspects of the Nuclear Cost Cycle.- C. Planning Context, Official Technology and the notion of Capture: a critique.- 4 Modern Costing and Regulation Debates: from OPEC-1 Onwards.- A. the nuclear-political cost cycle: from independence to constraints.- B. a Free Lunch Again?the New Atomic Energy the New Atomic Energy Costing Debate amongst economists and in the economic press from 1983 onwards.- 5 Atomic Power and Its Regulation: a Comparative Analysis and Critique of Projections.- A. The Japanese Nuclear Programan overview.- B. Japanese and US Regulatory Approaches in Theory and Practice.- C. The UK case: regulatory failure or government failure?.- D. US Department of Energy Long Term Projections for Nuclear Power: a costing-based critique.- 6 Summary and Conclusions: Atomic EnergyCostingRetrospect and Prospect.- Retrospect: No Free Lunch.- Prospect: from regulated plutonium to deregulated hydrogen-based economies.- Appendix:.- Simon, Marschak and Schurr on the 'Economic' and 'Trigger' Effects of Technological Changethe Case of Atomic Energy: from the 1940s to 1990s.