Costs and benefits of relaunching nuclear energy in Italy

Ivan Faiella and Luciano Lavecchia

No 114, Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area

Abstract: This paper supplies elements for assessing the costs and benefits of electronuclear energy in order to pursue three objectives: security of supply, cost reduction, and environmental sustainability. The study reached the following conclusions: 1) the use of nuclear energy increases the diversification of the energy mix and of energy suppliers, raising energy security levels, but it does not reduce Italy�s dependence on foreign energy; 2) the use of nuclear energy would not imply a reduction in power generation costs, but it would contain their volatility, with benefits in terms of decreasing uncertainty; 3) environmental impacts would differ depending on the time horizon considered: in the medium term, this technology would provide an important contribution to curbing greenhouse gas emissions; the long-term effects are more ambiguous and raise important intergenerational issues.

Keywords: nuclear energy; energy security; environmental impact of energy use (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q42 Q53 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-env
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_114_12

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