History, Future, and Potential of Oil and Nuclear Power

Abstract

Over the last 50 years, the connection between oil and nuclear energy in the global energy landscape has been examined. The previous product rivalry between nuclear and oil in power production and other end-use sectors has been discovered to have evolved into a complimentary relationship. Price volatility, supply security, geopolitical sensitivity, depletion alarms, and environmental pollution issues for oil, economic performance, operational safety, proliferation, terrorism, radioactive waste disposal, and the resulting public acceptance for nuclear are examined as determinants of their future roles in the world energy balance. To assist future economic and energy policy studies, a century-scale evaluation of the long-term prospects for oil and nuclear energy is provided. It is the first comprehensive assessment of global energy forecasts based on a comparison of long-term socioeconomic scenarios and their coordinated quantifications by a set of integrated energy–economic models.