Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 6.10
Natural Disasters and Economic Losses
Decade
1950-59
1960-69
1970-79
1980-89
1990-99
Number
20
27
47
63
89
Economic losses in billion US$
2001
42.2
75.7
136.1
211.3
652.3
Insured losses in billion US$
2001
---
7.2
12.4
26.4
123.2
Source:
Munich Re, 2003
Costs for environmental and health damages
The estimation of costs of damage to the environment or public health is rather
difficult and therefore very controversial.
The consequential damages of a maximum credible accident in a central
European nuclear power plant would be in the region of
5000 billion. This is
much more than a national economy can handle. In Germany the legal liability
for a nuclear reactor is only
€
500 million. The general public would have to
carry the remaining costs. Unlimited insurance cover would make nuclear
power plants unprofitable in most cases.
Nuclear power stations can also cause costs in other countries. For
instance, the reactor accident at Chernobyl affected many European countries,
notably, through radioactively contaminated agricultural products. Yet it is
not only reactor accidents that cause external costs; the normal operation of
nuclear power plants also causes such costs. The consequential damages of
uranium mining are enormous: damages arising from former uranium mines
in Eastern Germany are estimated to exceed
€
6.5 billion. Uranium processing,
enrichment, operation of power plants, transportation and final storage also
cause external costs that are not currently paid by power plant operators.
The use of fossil energy resources also causes high indirect costs that are
not covered by the energy price.
Damage to buildings
,
destruction of forests
or
damage to health
due to air pollution are only some obvious examples.
Material damages alone in Germany due to air pollution caused by the use of
fossil energy resources are estimated at more than
€
2 billion per year. Costs of
damage to health such as respiratory tract diseases, allergies or cancers caused
by fossil energies are difficult to estimate. They may also be in the range of
several billion Euros per year.
The cost of
damage caused by global warming
cannot be estimated today.
International insurance companies claim that there was a large increase in the
occurrence of natural disasters over recent decades (see Table 6.10). Whether
this increase was caused by the anthropogenic greenhouse effect cannot be
proven today with absolute certainty. However, these numbers indicate what
immense costs can arise from the greenhouse effect.
€
Other external costs
When using nuclear power there are also high costs for radioactive waste
disposal. Besides a high amount of capital for exploitation and installation of
