In a project for the Upper Austrian state government, SERI and the Institute for Economic Structures Research (GWS) developed a scenario for a European-wide phase-out of nuclear power to primarily infer economic consequences for EU countries.

The foundation of the “Alliance of Regions for Phasing out Nuclear Power across Europe” has aimed to discourage a continuation of support for an “uneconomical” technology and seeming defiance of “the opportunities posed by the energy transition.”

Not long ago, EU project POLFREE examined how the EU’s potential global leading role in climate and resource protection could affect various economic (e.g. employment, growth, prices, national debt etc.) and  environmental indicators (e.g. CO2 emissions, resource productivity etc.) of the EU member states. This scenario titled “EU Goes Ahead” was conceived by SERI and its outcomes were then quantified using the global, environmental economic, multi-regional Input-Output model GINFORS developed by GWS Osnabrück.

This new project at hand aimed to develop a scenario “Europe goes ahead without nuclear” and quantify its consequences on the economy and the environment including direct, indirect and rebound effects based on the frame of analysis constructed in POLFREE using GINFORS. This scenario will illuminate the differences between a complete European-wide phase-out of nuclear power until 2050 and a “Business as Usual” that continues to rely on nuclear power.

The results indicate that combining such a gradual European-wide nuclear power phase-out effort until 2050 with ambitious sustainability policies would have a positive impact on all relevant economic indicators and climate protection. These conclusions were presented at a press conference on 20 September 2017.


Go here to find out more about the research area Sustainable Economic Policy and Global Responsibility.