MACROECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF NUCLEAR ENERGY CONSUMPTION: A PANEL DATA ANALYSIS ON SELECTED OECD COUNTRIES

Electricity supply from coal, natural gas and petroleum is an energy supply security problem because of both the price of fuel and the supply of oil and derivative products from the regions with political instability such as the Middle East. Moreover, it is a current issue to search for alternatives to these sources because of the environmental damage caused by the greenhouse gases released to the atmosphere due to the burning of coal, natural gas and oil in electricity generation plants. Energy has an important place which not only shapes domestic and national policy, but also improves national industry and economy. In case, it is quite important the energy is produced from different sources. Nuclear energy is an important alternative in terms of most countries which has little fossil fuel sources. Nuclear power plants do not only contribute to the economy by generating electricity. It collaborates with many sectors and contributes to different areas of employment and economy. Nuclear power plants; Iron-steel contributes to the development of chemistry and machinery equipment industries. The development of nuclear technology triggers the development of other sectors and establishes back and forth connections with sectors such as IT, space industry, food and medicine. Nuclear energy has some disadvantages as well as these benefits. For example, nuclear power plants are not economically and technically flexible. In other words, the decommissioning of nuclear power plants is not an economic practice. Nuclear power plants, which require the most capital among all power generation plants, are the most demanding. Nuclear power plants require very high investment capital. It is extremely difficult for this high investment capital to emerge without government incentives. Although there are some critics about nuclear energy security, it is used intensively in countries which have completed industrialization process. In addition to the work of physicists related to nuclear energy, studies on determinants of nuclear energy consumption continue to increase by social scientists. In this article, macroeconomic determinants of nuclear energy have been examined. For the period of 2000-2015, civil labor, total emission of carbon dioxide, prices of crude oil, energy density, consumption of fossil fuel (% of total), consumption of renewable energy and variables of gross domestic product including fixed prices per person has been used as macroeconomic setters of nuclear energy in the analysis in which OECD countries are been taken as sample countries. In OECD countries,