[en] A brief review is given of the recent public emergence of environmental pressure groups in the Soviet Union. They have expressed opposition to nuclear power, the construction of a thermal power station in Estonia, pollution from existing fossil plants and enlarged hydropower stations. Analysis is given of the development of power station capacity in the European Comecon countries and a discussion of their prices. (U.K.)

[en] Several recent reports have revealed that the US nuclear weapons production facilities are in decay, with terrible consequences for those who live near them. These are, of course, the oldest nuclear facilities in the world. When they were built, preoccupations were different. Yet there are lessons to be drawn from what has been revealed. First and foremost, the cost of clear up is so high, it seems unlikely that even the mighty USA will be prepared to pay the enormous cost of returning the earth to its former purity. And secondly, secrecy all too frequently hides incompetence. In theory these plants were the pride of national defence, with no expense spared. It is profoundly to be hoped there are no skeletons quite like this lurking in the civilian cupboard. (author)

[en] Contingent claims analysis provides a useful tool for analysing the value of tax claims, and of companies' after-tax values, under uncertainty. The method is presented and applied to the analysis of how Norwegian petroleum taxes affect company behaviour. Few results can be derived analytically. A numerical approach is suggested, with a stylized description of production possibilities. The Norwegian taxes are found to have strong distortionary effects. The relation to other methods and problems connected with the application are discussed. (Author)

[en] Economic recessions traceable to oil price shocks are not a new phenomenon. There have been nine years since 1947 when US crude oils prices (at the well head) increased by 5% or more on a year-to-year basis and the Commerce Department's revised index of 11 leading economic indicators declined by at least 1% on a December-to-December basis. Every one of those years (including 1990) was followed by a near zero or negative growth rate for real GNP expressed in 1982 dollars in the following year. (author)

[en] The British government's policy on nuclear power is to support and encourage an expansion of the nuclear energy programme. However, the Conservative government has said it will withdraw its funding from the fast breeder reactor research programme based at Dounreay in Scotland. Once the Electricity supply industry has been privatised it will not finance the fast breeder reactor programme either. So it seems likely that the research will be discontinued after 5 years and the reprocessing plant planned for Dounreay will never be built. This highlights the basic ambiguity that has existed for a long time over the fast breeder programme and has forced a decision. A similar problem exists generally with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority which has continued to thrive despite many failures. The reasons for this are explained. Privatisation may be the spur to the demise of the UKAEA so it no longer enjoys such a favoured position. The decision to kill off the FBR is just one consequence of this. Others may be a change of attitude to the decommissioning of the Windscale prototype advanced gas cooled reactor, and the fusion project, including JET. (U.K.)

[en] Estimates of total and nuclear electricity generation for Europe are listed country by country for the years 1987, 1990, 1995 and 2000. These have been collected by the OECD's (Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development) Nuclear Energy Agency for OECD countries. Although there has been a reduction in forecasts of electricity demand and the accident at Chernobyl has had an effect, the Agency remains reasonably optimistic about the future of nuclear power. (U.K.)

[en] Increased attention is being devoted to the analysis of environmental externalities generated by economic activities. For example, the emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon from the generation of electricity are central issues in the discussion of externalities in the New York State bidding process. Furthermore, there is increasing interest nationally and internationally in policy proposals to reduce carbon emissions. The taxation of carbon emissions is one way for society to internalize environmental externalities relative to global warming by imposing monetary penalties per unit of carbon emitted from all fuels. This contrasts with the bidding process because the latter adds cost to electricity generation only. However, in both cases electric utilities are in a position to pass on these charges to their customers through increased rates. Consequently, there are inevitable effects on the welfare of consumers, and the monetary measurement of these welfare effects is the primary focus of this paper. (author)

[en] A three-region, three-commodity general equilibrium model is constructed to explore the impact of OPEC's pricing policies on major macro variables of importer economies. The aim of this paper is to explore general macro characteristics of the trading economies to aid understanding of the world economy response after OPEC I and OPEC II in terms of the evolution of North - South terms of trade, rates of profit and output levels. We support the view of a world economy in a three regions setting, North - South - OPEC. The analysis increases our understanding of why regions respond differently to the same external shock and how from different regimes of capital mobility we should derive alternative policy implications. With the current rise in oil prices, the topic promises to be relevant for some time, although the direction of the shocks has been reserved. (Author)

[en] Three classes of qualitative multicriteria methods are dealt with in this paper. An empirical problem, the choice of the best site for a nuclear power plant, is used to investigate the extent to which the results of the analysis are influenced by the choice of specific methods. The conclusion is that a certain sensitivity is unavoidable but that the final ranking of the alternatives - on the basis of a set of good methods -is nevertheless reasonably stable. (author)

[en] This paper examines the effects of maturity on future price volatility and trading volume for 129 energy futures contracts recently traded in the NYMEX. The results provide support for the maturity effect hypothesis, that is, energy futures prices to become more volatile and trading volume increases as futures contracts approach maturity. (author)