Reply to the 8th Report on the Activities of the European Nuclear Energy Agency

Recommendation 475 (1967)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly Debate on 25th January 1967 (21st Sitting) (see Doc. 2156, report of the Economic Committee). Text adopted by the Assembly on 25th January 1967 (21st Sitting).

The Assembly,

1. Conscious that nuclear power stations are on the point of becoming fully competitive for the generation of electricity in Europe, in certain situations and under certain conditions, with the most modern conventional power stations ;

2. Attaching the utmost importance to the maintenance and the further development of an indigenous European nuclear reactor construction industry so as to avoid Europe's becoming dependent in this field on United States industry and skills ;

3. Aware that the basic assumptions or "ground rules" normally adopted in North America with regard to amortisation periods and expected load factors for the calculation of the costs of electricity generation frequently differ widely from those adopted in Europe - usually in such a sense as to produce lower apparent generation costs in North America ;

4. Considering that this difference may lead European public opinion to suppose erroneously that certain types of reactor, for which US concerns hold the main patents, and for the construction of which in Europe licences might not be granted except on condition that large parts of the construction work were carried out by the US concerns involved, are more commercially attractive than other types of reactor which have been developed in Europe,

5. Recommends the Committee of Ministers to encourage by all possible means, both within the framework of ENEA and elsewhere, the habit of showing generating costs per kilowatt/hour of electricity sent out from nuclear reactors calculated on a number of differing assumptions with regard to the overall rate of interest on the capital outlay, the period of amortisation, and the average load factor to be expected during the said period, the assumptions being selected to cover typical practices in this respect both in Europe and in North America.