This paper analyzes the causes, responses, and consequences of the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident (March 2011) by comparing these with Three Mile Island (March 1979) and Chernobyl (April 1986). We identify three generic modes of organizational coordination: modular, vertical, and...

This study uses a Cox proportional hazards model to analyze changes in the risk of unplanned outages in U.S. nuclear power plants after the Three Mile Island (TMI) accident. The unplanned outage hazard is related to safety by the fact that most such outages begin with unplanned reactor scrams....

Combining theoretical work with careful historical description and analysis of new data sources, History Matters makes a strong case for a more historical approach to economics, both by argument and by example. Seventeen original essays, written by distinguished economists and economic...

This study uses a Cox proportional hazards model to analyze changes in the risk of unplanned outages in U.S. nuclear power plants after the Three Mile Island (TMI) accident. The unplanned outage hazard is related to safety by the fact that most such outages begin with unplanned reactor scrams....

This paper examines the cost structure of fabricating light water reactor (LWR) fuel with low-enriched uranium (LEU, with less than 5% enrichment). The LWR-LEU fuel industry is decades old, and (except for the high entry cost of designing and licensing a fuel fabrication facility and its fuel),...

This paper studies the impact of the March 1979 Three Mile Island (TMI) accident on the regulation of nuclear power plants (NPPs) and its consequences for the operating behavior and profitability of the U.S. nuclear power industry. We treat the TMI accident as a ``natural experiment'' that...

This paper presents a dynamic programming (DP) model of optimal operation of a nuclear power plant (NPP). In each period the operator decides whether to run the reactor at a given capacity level, to shut it down for preventive maintenance or refueling, or permanently close the plant for...