Economic Assessment of Japan’s Nuclear Power Policy

This chapter assesses the importance of nuclear power from the viewpoints of gross domestic product (GDP) and carbon dioxide emissions in Japan. The assessment is conducted using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The CGE model is constructed based on the GTAP-Power database, which is an electricity-detailed extension of the GTAP 9 database, a global input–output table. The simulation results indicate that nuclear power generation is not significantly important for Japan in terms of GDP, because fossil fuel power compensates for shortages in the electricity market. In terms of CO2 emissions, nuclear power is an important power source for Japan. An increase in fossil fuel power generation causes a non-negligible amount of CO2 emissions.