Nuclear energy research funding 1956-2002: Startup financing or subsidy?

Different figures, some of them extremely large, some even interpreted as subsidies, have been publicized about public funding of the development of nuclear power for electricity generation. An attempt is made in this article to quantify the research funds directly attributable to the present use of nuclear power, put the research funds spent into a relationship to the electricity generated from nuclear power, and put a number on the economic benefit of the money spent. In the past, R and D work on the utilization of nuclear power was financed by various federal ministries. As in other technology-related areas, funds were made available for specific projects, on the one hand, and through financing the national research centers, on the other hand. Relatively small amounts were spent on the development of the light water reactor (LWR) line, most of them in the 1950s and 1960s. Considerably greater expenditures were incurred by the federal government for reactor safety. R and D of the fast breeder (LMFBR) was conducted chiefly between 1960 and 1993. Research into the high temperature (HTR) reactor line focused mainly on the plant built by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Versuchsreaktor (AVR) association, and the thorium high temperature reactor (THTR-300) at a later date. Nuclear fuel cycle activities were started early in the 1950s. The decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear plants plays but a minor role in public funding. Nuclear fusion, on the other hand, is a major research area. The nuclear power plants now generating electricity from nuclear power have never received any subsidies, and their economic benefit is beyond any doubt. The public funds spent on R and D were intended to be startup funds. They convincingly served their purpose in those cases where the technologies supported in this way have been able to take off. (orig.)