Report on reports: nuclear energy

A joint report by the Nuclear Energy Agency (of the OECD) and the International Energy Agency, nuclear energy prospects to 2000 surveys the factors shaping the future of nuclear power in the 24-country OECD grouping, 13 of whom were operating nuclear power plants as of the end of 1981. Among the factors reviewed are the long-term economic outlook and its effect on total energy consumption, the role of electricity within aggregate energy use, and the economic and policy determinants governing nuclear's future contribution to electric power capacity and generation. The way in which public confidence bears on the nuclear outlook is mentioned as one of the considerations in the policy process, but this is given rather short shrift for an issue which many feel to be at the heart of the present-day nuclear power dilemma. The report describes areas in which nuclear power could offer notable advantages: 1) competitive electricity costs; 2) resource adequacy; 3) security of supply; and 4) environmental integrity. (JMT)