Do we really need nuclear power facilities in Germany?

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Economics - Finance, grade: 1,7, Humboldt-University of Berlin (Institute for Public Economics), course: Environmental and Resource Economics, language: English, abstract: This paper analyses whether nuclear power is needed in Germany. To reach the aims of the Kyoto Protocol, Germany has to reduce the CO2 emissions. In spite of different results in the presented studies, this paper shows that nuclear power can help in reducing the climate problem in the short run. In addition to reach the aims of the Kyoto Protocol, competitive prices of nuclear power have also to be fulfilled. In the second part of this paper, the costs of nuclear power are discussed. Additionally, external costs and risks of nuclear power are discussed as well. This paper reveals that high uncertainties exist about the risk assessment of nuclear power and the availability of suitable data in this context is limited. Overall, the low CO2 emission of nuclear power and the risk of high external costs result in the finding that nuclear power can be an expensive energy source for solving the global warming problem.