Comparison of cost efficiencies of nuclear power and renewable energy generation in mitigating CO₂ emissions

The objective of this study is to compare the cost efficiencies of nuclear power and renewable energy generation in reducing CO₂ emissions. To achieve this objective, we estimate the relationship between CO₂ emissions and both nuclear power and renewable energy generation in 16 major nuclear power-generating countries, and compare the costs of both energy generation methods in reducing CO₂ emissions by the same amount. The results show that, to reduce CO₂ emissions by 1%, nuclear power and renewable energy generation should be increased by 2.907% and 4.902%, respectively. This implies that if the current amount of electricity generation is one megawatt-hour, the cost of mitigating CO₂ emissions by 1% is $3.044 for nuclear power generation and $7.097 for renewable energy generation. That is, the total generation costs are approximately $1.70 billion for the nuclear power and $3.97 billion for renewable energy to mitigate 1% of CO₂ emissions at the average amount of electricity generation of 0.56 billion MWh in 2014 in the sample countries. Hence, we can conclude that nuclear power generation is more cost-efficient than is renewable energy generation in mitigating CO₂ emissions, even with the external costs of accidents and health impact risks associated with nuclear power generation.