The Political Economic Determinants of Nuclear Power: Eviden ce from Chernobyl
Abstract
This paper documents that the global growth of nuclear power plants (NPPs) declined after Chernobyl, especially in countries with open democrac ies, which had the most NPPs at the time. In the United States, after Chern obyl, i) Congressmen who received campaign contributions or come f rom states that economically rely on fossil fuels are more likely to vote a gainst nuclear; ii) fossil fuel firms increased campaign contribut ions; and iii) newspapers with higher ad revenue share from fossil fuel fir ms published more anti-nuclear articles. In the United Kingdom, after Chern obyl, members of parliament sponsored by mining unions were much more likel y to give anti-nuclear speeches in parliament. These results suggest that f ossil fuel interests took advantage of the heightened public concerns trigg ered by Chernobyl to lobby against nuclear energy. The decline in NPP follo wing Chernobyl was associated with the loss of approximately 141 million ex pected life years in the U.S., 33 million in the U.K. and 318 million globa lly.
DTSTAMP:20260421T102202Z DTSTART:20241211T130000Z DTEND:20241211T140000Z SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:OPAQUE END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR