ENVIRONMENTAL WELFARE EFFECTS EVALUATION William B. Wilson Teknekron Research, Inc. - 1483 Chain Bridge Road - McLean, Virginia 22101 Broadly defined, welfare effects are adverse environmental impacts (excluding health and safety related impacts) on the well-being of individuals, society, and the environment. Welfare effects result from environmental residuals released by the processes and activities involved in the production of electrical energy and from various fuel cycle operations and activities themselves. This paper presents a comparative assessment of the welfare effects associated with the satellite power system (SPS) and seven alternative energy technologies. Six categories of welfare effects are examined: (1) economic losses (i.e., property and material damage, reduced crop yields, and lowered property values); (2) climate and ecosystem changes (i.e., C02 buildup, degradation of terrestrial and aquatic habitats, and interference with wildlife migratory patterns); (3) nuisance impacts (i.e., noise, fugitive dust, localized mi sting/fogging/ icing conditions, and the lowering of area water tables); (4) aesthetic losses (i.e., reduced visibility and adverse visual impacts); (5) electromagnetic disturbance (i.e., interference with communication signals, computer operations and/or medical devices); and (6) other social costs (i.e., reduced water quality, reduced commercial/recreational use of public water bodies, pre-emptive land uses, aquifer interference, degradation of roads/highways, and congestion of transportation systems). An exhaustive literature search and an extensive number of contacts with outside experts revealed that the welfare effects associated with conventional fuel cycles (e.g., coal and LWRs) are better understood and documented than those associated with the more advanced fuel cycles (e.g., SPS and fusion). Furthermore, the welfare effects of the advanced fuel cycles are characterized by a larger degree of uncertainty, although uncertainty is a characteristic of most research on this topic. Based on available data, the most serious welfare effects identified were associated with coal (i.e., acid rain and C02 buildup) and nuclear power (i.e., radioactive wastes). The welfare effects thought to be produced by SPS include electromagnetic interference, pre-emptive land uses, and aesthetic impacts; however, considerable research is needed to document the extent and significance of these problems. Moreover, most of the welfare effects produced by the SPS fuel cycle are ones that are generally acceptable when produced by other fuel cycles (e.g., aesthetic losses) or of unknown acceptability (e.g., electromagnetic interferences). Projections of welfare effects across time are made difficult by the large degree of uncertainty associated with their cause-effect relationship and inadequate data. Nevertheless, it did appear that SPS would have a positive effect on some of the more serious contemporary welfare effects associated with the production of electrical power, namely acid rain, C02 buildup, and the production of radioactive wastes. SPS's overall impact on such problems however is impossible to estimate without a great deal of further research, because the scope of these issues transcend both the production of energy and national boundaries.
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