An Economy Aspect of Different Nuclear Energy Development

Abstract

Humanity must face the reality that it cannot depend indefinitely on combustion of coal, gas and oil for most of its energy needs.  In the long term, nuclear energy seems to be the only one capable of replacing fossil fuel energy in the production of electricity in the world. The specific greenhouses gases (GHG) emissions of nuclear power plants are among the lowest of any electricity generation method. Nuclear power is cost-competitive with other forms of electricity generation, except where there is direct access to low-cost fossil fuels.

Global primary energy needs rise more slowly than in the past, but still an increase of 19% between today and 2050 is expected according to World Energy Outlook 2022. Electrical energy needs will rise faster than primary energy needs and the electrical energy production has to be with low GHG emissions due to global warming mitigation. We assume in our scenarios that nuclear energy will be global electricity production leader with a percentage of 36.7 % in the year 2050. In addition, we assume that all thermal power plants will be replaced by uranium or thorium fuel cycle nuclear power plants by the year 2057.

This paper describes a comparison of different long term nuclear energy development scenarios according to costs. The calculated saving of GHG emissions in case of significant use of nuclear energy in the future in the world is emphasized.