A Comparison of the External Cost of Hydro and Nuclear Power Plant. I. G. Kollas and S. Mirasgedis, NCSR “Demokritos,” Institute of Nuclear Technology and Radiation Protection, 153 10 Aghia Paraskevi, Attiki, Greece, telephone +30 1 65 40 928, fax 30 1 65 33 431, e-mail kollas@ipta.demokritos.gr
Environmental and health impacts and the associated damage costs of a small hydroelectric power plant, and a large nuclear power plant are assessed in this paper. To this purpose a hydroelectric project along the Metsovitikos River in central Greece, and a nuclear power plant located on a hypothetical site in southeastern Evia Island, northeast of Athens, have been selected as reference. A large number of impacts have been identified for both power plants. Occupational accidents, impacts on agriculture and forests, noise produced during the operation of the plant, are the most important among hydro impacts. Concerning nuclear power besides the conventional impacts of the nuclear fuel cycle, the impacts of accidents during the electricity generation stage have been also assessed. The results of the analysis show that the major contributors to the damage cost of the Metsovitikos hydroelectric power plant are noise impacts and the fatal occupational accidents, especially those that occur during the construction phase of the project. On the other hand nuclear accidents contribute to a small extent to the overall external cost of nuclear power, while more significant impacts are born during the normal operation of the electricity generation stage. Long term global impacts of mining and milling, and reprocessing are also important contributors to the overall external cost of nuclear power.
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