Nuclear power generation, renewable resources and endogenous growth

The author develops an endogenous growth framework in which energy production is based on a learning by doing technology exploiting renewable reproducible capital and nuclear power plants. Consumption activities generates radioactive waste according to an exogenous factor reflecting the economy energy mix, while an abatement technology, reducing the impact of solid waste accumulation on welfare, is explicitly taken into account. Differently from traditional growth and environmental literature, the author includes an explicit preference for the technology mix by postulating a non separable utility in consumption, radioactive waste and stock of renewable capital. Within this framework the author derives conditions on preferences under which sustained growth is attainable without imposing, ex ante, neither compensation nor a distaste effect characterizing utility. Finally, introducing simplifying assumptions on the preference relation, an investigation of the dynamic property of the equilibrium is provided. The results obtained suggest a high complementarity of renewable capital and nuclear technology exploitation in determining potential long run growth.