Nuclear energy vs. black coal

Investment decisions taken for a power plant concern a period of up to 8 years of construction and more than 20 years of operation - i.e. a total of 30 years and over. Such periods require the different cost developments of power generation from nuclear energy and black coal to be made comparable. To this end, business economics has developed a number of more or less sophisticated calculation methods whose quantitative statements depend from a number of factors (wages, interests, etc.) but whose qualitative statements are clear-cut. The entrepreneur's decision when choosing from different power plant alternatives does not really depend from the nicest intricacies of the calculation methods but must be based on the safe qualitative statement indicating which alternative will result in the least cost in the final run. With this in mind, the author presents a simple analysis method which will suffice for decision taking. (orig.)