External costs of electricity production in coal, gas and nuclear power plants under Polish conditions

The paper presents resent developments in external cost evaluation methodology and the method of monetary aggregation of results. The choice of Value od Statistical Life (VSL) and of value of Year of Life Lost (YOLL) is discussed. The approach taking into account the value of GNP per inhabitant is presented and the values of VSL and YOLL which could be adopted for Poland are discussed. The influence of discount rate on external costs is briefly indicated. The results of the evaluation of external costs for various energy systems as obtained within the recent international study ExternE are also presented. The influence of accidents (including severe ones) on external costs is reviewed and the latest estimates are given and discussed. The range of uncertainties is provided and the possibilities of results transfer to countries which have not participated in ExternE are discussed. The external costs for coal, lignite, gas and nuclear power plants possible to be installed in Poland are estimated. When external costs are included in electricity generation costs nuclear energy turns out to be much cheaper than coal and competitive with natural gas. (author)