Communication on energy: who pays for the long-term costs of nuclear power

The question in the title arises in making a fair comparison between a coal-fired station, which has no long-term costs, and a nuclear station, whose large long-term costs are discounted into insignificance by the present method of calculation. This problem was raised by the present author in his evidence to the Sizewell Inquiry, and has recently been discussed by the House of Commons Select Committee on Energy, who expressed grave disquiet that 'the costs of decommissioning become almost irrelevant to the current economics of nuclear power'. The present article analyses the bizarre effects of long-term discounting, and suggests a method of making a fair and symmetrical comparison between coal-fired and nuclear stations. (author)