Sizewell: good value for consumers' money?
Abstract For consumers, the overriding issues in electricity policy are always likely to be those which affect prices, both in the near future and over the longer term. It is therefore the ‘need and economics’ part of the overall case for Sizewell that consumers’ representatives chose to scrutinize. This paper argues that there are no compelling short-term reasons to start construction of Sizewell at the earliest possible time. Further, long-term considerations suggest that there are good reasons not to make an early commitment to the Westinghouse fourloop design of PWR, either for Sizewell or for subsequent orders.
NUCLEAR POWER IN THE US AND UK: THE ROLE OF SITING IN SAFETY PHILOSOPHY
Reactor safety has featured prominently in the nuclear debate in the US and UK throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s. Public acceptability of nuclear power will largely be related to the resolution of safety issues. In view of the proposal by the UK Central Electricity Generating Board to build PW Rs, this paper discusses the safety philosophies which have evolved in both countries. Whereas UK safety authorities have consistently advocated siting as a means to minimise the residual risks of nuclear generation, their UK counterparts consider siting to be only of marginal relevance as a safety measure. This is borne out from a cluster analysis of 109 sites using 12 demographic variables. A sixfold classification illustrates the predominance of remote sites in the US and high population density sites in the UK. A search for more remote, safer sites in the UK is advocated.
Did the metamorphosis from Export Processing Zones to Special Economic Zones improve the efficiency of trade enclaves in India?
In this paper, the efficiency of seven conventional Special Economic Zones in India is analyzed, by adopting a stochastic production frontier technique, for the period between 1986–1987 and 2007–2008.Results indicate that although the efficiency scores of these enclaves have improved over the years, specifically with the introduction of the SEZ policy (2000–2001), it is far below the threshold level as identified in the literature. Besides, one can also observe a discrepancy emerging between better export earning zones and efficient zones. On the determinants side, policy intervention and large geographical area, accompanied by clustering of units, are found to have impacted the efficiency scores of these enclaves positively.