IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/engenv/v13y2002i2p207-237.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The U.S. Nuclear Power Industry: Past, Present, and Possible Futures

Author

Listed:
  • John L. Jurewitz

    (Southern California Edison and Pomona College)

Abstract

Although the United States generates only about 20% of its total electricity from nuclear power, it has almost twice as much nuclear generation capacity as any other country. This article presents an historical overview of the U.S. nuclear power industry and the policies that have shaped it. The U.S. nuclear industry is currently at a crossroads. The total number of nuclear powerplants has been virtually constant for over a decade. Over the coming years, it seems likely that the owners of most existing plants will succeed in securing extensions of their operating licenses. The critical question is whether new nuclear capacity will be built. Although it seems likely that some utility will attempt to build a new nuclear plant within the next decade, any such attempt will encounter a degree of public opposition based on environmental and security concerns. The ultimate outcome of this social confrontation is difficult to forecast.

Suggested Citation

  • John L. Jurewitz, 2002. "The U.S. Nuclear Power Industry: Past, Present, and Possible Futures," Energy & Environment, , vol. 13(2), pages 207-237, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:engenv:v:13:y:2002:i:2:p:207-237
    DOI: 10.1260/0958305021501182
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1260/0958305021501182
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1260/0958305021501182?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bier, Vicki & Joosten, James & Glyer, David & Tracey, Jennifer & Welsh, Michael, 2001. "Deregulation and Nuclear Power Safety: What Can We Learn from Other Industries?," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 49-60, May.
    2. Steve Cohn, 1990. "The Political Economy of Nuclear Power (1945–1990): The Rise and Fall of an Official Technology," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 781-811, September.
    3. Martin B. Zimmerman, 1982. "Learning Effects and the Commercialization of New Energy Technologies: The Case of Nuclear Power," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 13(2), pages 297-310, Autumn.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. C. Lanier Benkard, 2000. "Learning and Forgetting: The Dynamics of Aircraft Production," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(4), pages 1034-1054, September.
    2. Anelí Bongers, 2017. "Learning and forgetting in the jet fighter aircraft industry," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(9), pages 1-19, September.
    3. Stavins, Robert & Jaffe, Adam & Newell, Richard, 2000. "Technological Change and the Environment," Working Paper Series rwp00-002, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    4. Samadi, Sascha, 2018. "The experience curve theory and its application in the field of electricity generation technologies – A literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 2346-2364.
    5. Lovering, Jessica R. & Yip, Arthur & Nordhaus, Ted, 2016. "Historical construction costs of global nuclear power reactors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 371-382.
    6. Greaker, Mads & Lund Sagen, Eirik, 2008. "Explaining experience curves for new energy technologies: A case study of liquefied natural gas," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 2899-2911, November.
    7. Ben Wealer & Christian von Hirschhausen, 2020. "Nuclear Power as a System Good: Organizational Models for Production along the Value-Added Chain," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1883, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    8. Gérard Mondello & Evens Salies, 2007. "Fragmenter une activité à risque," Working Papers hal-00972847, HAL.
    9. Saman Majd & Robert S. Pindyck, 1989. "The Learning Curve and Optimal Production under Uncertainty," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 20(3), pages 331-343, Autumn.
    10. John R. Boyce & Diane P. Bischak, 2010. "Learning by Doing, Knowledge Spillovers, and Technological and Organizational Change in High-Altitude Mountaineering," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 11(5), pages 496-532, October.
    11. Emanuela Randon & Ahmad Naimzada, 2007. "Dynamics of the non linear learning curve with spillovers in a differentiated oligopoly: effects on industry structure," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 95-106, February.
    12. Anelí Bongers, 2023. "Learning by doing, organizational forgetting, and the business cycle," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(1), pages 141-150, January.
    13. Paul Lehmann & Patrik Söderholm, 2018. "Can Technology-Specific Deployment Policies Be Cost-Effective? The Case of Renewable Energy Support Schemes," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 71(2), pages 475-505, October.
    14. Neij, Lena, 2008. "Cost development of future technologies for power generation--A study based on experience curves and complementary bottom-up assessments," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 2200-2211, June.
    15. Wealer, B. & Bauer, S. & Hirschhausen, C.v. & Kemfert, C. & Göke, L., 2021. "Investing into third generation nuclear power plants - Review of recent trends and analysis of future investments using Monte Carlo Simulation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    16. Della Seta, Marco & Gryglewicz, Sebastian & Kort, Peter M., 2012. "Optimal investment in learning-curve technologies," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 1462-1476.
    17. Liu, An-Hsiang & Siebert, Ralph B., 2022. "The competitive effects of declining entry costs over time: Evidence from the static random access memory market," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    18. Harashima, Taiji, 2012. "A Theory of Intelligence and Total Factor Productivity: Value Added Reflects the Fruits of Fluid Intelligence," MPRA Paper 43151, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. To, T.C., 1993. "Infant Industry Protection with Learning-by-Doing," Discussion Paper 1993-26, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    20. Francine Lafontaine & Kathryn Shaw, 2016. "Serial Entrepreneurship: Learning by Doing?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(S2), pages 217-254.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:engenv:v:13:y:2002:i:2:p:207-237. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.