[en] A comparison is made of a nuclear power plant with 1000 MWe equivalent output and a fossil-fuel power plant with a 500 MWe condenser unit and five back-pressure turbines with equivalent output of 100 MWe each, with regard to economy, to radiation hazards in normal and accident conditions, to economic losses owing to accidents, to atmospheric contamination and to hazards from fuel transport. The economic benefit of the nuclear power plant is $ 9.1 million per GWe at a 10% interest rate and a 20 year service life. Mortality caused by radiation in normal operation and by delayed effects of accidents in the nuclear power plant were determined assuming a direct dependence of increased mortality on the total exposure of population. The early mortality rate caused by accidents was calculated from the correlation of individual doses and mortality. Mortality due to air pollution by fossil-fuel power plants was obtained from the statistical dependence of mortality on the concentration of air pollutants for the total population. The hazards of fuel transport were calculated from traffic density and unit transport capacity. Thermal pollution was not considered. The unit costs of $ 175 per 1 kg assumed for fuel reprocessing and waste management are considered to be adequate to cover even costly waste disposal methods. The annual mortality rate thus obtained for normal operation is 0.0001 to 0.08 for the nuclear power plant and 2 to 5 for the fossil-fuel power plant, the increase in annual mortality due to fuel transport is 0.003 for the nuclear power plant and 0.008 for the fossil-fuel power plant, the increase in mortality owing to accident is 0.005 for the nuclear power plant. The risk-benefit ratio is negative and better than -0.22 deaths/million $. (J.P.)