The regional income and employment impacts of nuclear power stations

This paper attempts quantitatively to assess the income and employment impacts associated with two nuclear establishments in Scotland: the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (U.K.A.E.A.) nuclear power establishment at Dounreay in Caithness and the South of Scotland Electricity Board (S.S.E.B.) nuclear power station presently under construction at Torness in the Lothian region. The model used is a basic Keynesian income multiplier model refined to allow detailed analysis of income and employment impacts at a local level. As used in this study it allows the identification of the increase in income and the associated increase in employment relating to the siting of a nuclear power plant in a particular locality. Results are given. The employment multipliers are estimated to be in the range 1.236 to 1.535 for Dounreay and 1.294 to 1.675 for the operational phase of the Torness plant. It is concluded that although the absolute income increases in the respective subregions are significant, compared to the total annual expenditure of the establishments these figures indicate high leakage from the subregions. (UK)