Suchergebnisse

Cover -- Half Title -- Dedication -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Figures and tables -- Acknowledgments -- Preface and executive summary -- 1 Economic issues and the disposition of weapon-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium -- Introduction -- Disposition and the allocation of national resources -- Non-proliferation -- The goals of disposition -- The negative externalities of wastes generated by disposition -- The time frame for the disposition decision -- 2 The economic value of plutonium and highly enriched uranium -- Economic value -- Plutonium as an asset or liability -- Disposition and economic value -- Specific cost considerations for reprocessing during disposition -- The value of recycled nuclear reactor fuel without reprocessing costs -- The value of recycled nuclear reactor fuel with reprocessing costs -- Russian perceptions of the value of plutonium -- Additional costs associated with plutonium use and storage -- The energy value environment -- 3 Disposition quantities of surplus materials -- Introduction -- Total quantities of plutonium -- US supplies of plutonium -- Russian supplies of plutonium -- Status of materials in other countries -- Japanese supply of surplus plutonium -- Total quantities of HEU -- 4 The economic nature of the US commercial nuclear industry and the use of downblended HEU as reactor fuel -- Classical economics and the commercial nuclear industry -- The price of uranium -- Burning plutonium in commercial reactors -- Downblending highly enriched uranium for disposition as reactor fuel -- The mechanics of downblending -- The economics of downblending -- Downblending options -- Burning downblended HEU in light water reactors -- Summary - disposition of HEU as reactor fuel -- Decontamination and decommissioning costs -- 5 The impact of reprocessing on disposition -- Introduction -- Reprocessing

This timely and wide-ranging study covers both the economic and the political aspects of defense spending--first by providing a theoretical framework and then by explaining, in a political economy context, the results of decisions to allocate scarce resources to defense. In doing so, the authors provide a comprehensive picture of the interaction between defense spending and the economic and political structure of the United States, complementing their exploration of topical concerns such as SDI with analysis of long-term trends and issues of timeless importance in the defense debate. Because of the politicizing of defense planning and procurement, there have been few significant applications of optimization techniques to high-level defense issues over the past decade. As a result, there has been a rapid decline in the importance of those techniques--historically the focus of books on defense economics. Like its predecessors, this book presents optimization techniques applicable to a wide variety of defense problems, but it also illustrates what happens in actual practice and why defense decisions are often not economically efficient. The authors discuss alternatives for cases when political constraints make efficient solutions unlikely and explore changes in the defense establishment and political structures that would make economically efficient resource allocations a reality.

This book is designed for people who wish to increase their understanding of the political economy of nuclear weapon production and proliferation. It explains the role of military, political, and economic incentives in perpetuating the continued growth of worldwide nuclear arsenals.