External costs of electricity production

The results of estimation surveys on external costs in terms of money obtained so far are so beset with imponderabilities that their quantitative incorporation in decision-making processes is not practicable at the present stage. This is particularly true of those factors to which at least some expert assign high external costs, i.e., the greenhouse effect, desasters through nuclear power plants, damage to human health and forests, exhaustion of resources, and endangerment of species diversity. The imponderabilities involved in the determination of external costs are illustrated with three examples, namely anthropogenic forest decline, desasters through nuclear power stations, and the utilisation of non-renewable resources. At the end there is a discussion on how to deal with these imponderabilities. (orig./UA)