The Political Economic Determinants of Nuclear Power: Evidence from Chernobyl

Abstract

This paper documents that the global growth of nuclear power plants (NPPs) declined after Chernobyl, especially in countries with open democracies, which had the most NPPs at the time. In the United States, after Chernobyl, i) Congressmen who received campaign contributions or come from states that economically rely on fossil fuels are more likely to vote against nuclear; ii) fossil fuel firms increased campaign contributions; and iii) newspapers with higher ad revenue share from fossil fuel firms published more anti-nuclear articles. In the United Kingdom, after Chernobyl, members of parliament sponsored by mining unions were much more likely to give anti-nuclear speeches in parliament. These results suggest that fossil fuel interests took advantage of the heightened public concerns triggered by Chernobyl to lobby against nuclear energy. The decline in NPP following Chernobyl was associated with the loss of approximately 141 million expected life years in the U.S., 33 million in the U.K. and 318 million globally.