A critical study on Kennedys Cost-Benefit-Analysis ‘New nuclear power generation in the UK’

The demand for energy is forever growing. The technology of extracting power from uranium through nuclear facilities is rather old. Core melting, nuclear bombs, uranium extraction costs and the question what to do with the wastes has hindered countries from exploiting this resource. The technology of extraction, containment and refinement has however come a far way since the beginning. There is a need of revaluing this method of generating power. What better way of doing this than making a cost and benefit analysis upon Nuclear Power. If the costs of overweight the benefits, the governments should dismount the reactors in the involved country. If it’s the other way around; benefits surpassing costs, there should be a development within this sector. In this thesis we will analyze a cost-benefit-analysis of new nuclear power generation in the UK. We will explain how a CBA is constructed, give some examples of cost and benefits of nuclear power and with this knowledge we will then critically look at the 2006 CBA of new nuclear power in UK (Kennedy) which compares costs and benefits of nuclear new build with conventional gas-fired generation and low carbon technologies.