Management of Commercially Generated Radioactive Waste - U.S. ...

Issue
198
COSTS
An issue which needs to be addressed is the expense involved for safety precautions.
The technology for "near-perfect" safety can probably be found, however it will be very
expensive. If it comes at the taxpayers expense this will, in effect, subsidize nuclear
energy. This could make nuclear energy appear more commercially favorable than another
source of energy that does not receive such preferential treatment. Or if the safety costs
are born by the producer, can we be guaranteed that a private corporation can afford such a
large expense on a competitive energy market. (216)
Response
The Statement develops the waste management costs (1978 dollars) for the entire
reference nuclear power generating system. Costs associated with treatment, interim
storage, transportation, decommissioning, and disposal in geologic repositories are
presented (see Sections 4.9, 5.6 and 7.6). The Statement identifies the dollar value a
consumer of nuclear power could be charged for the waste management aspect of nuclear
energy production. An assumption made when developing cost estimates was that all waste
management costs, whether the services are provided by private industry or by the
government, will be borne by the customers of the electric energy generated by the nuclear
power facility and thus are reflected as an increase in cost of power.