Accident risks in the energy sector: comparison of damage indicators and external costs

In 1998 ENSAD, a highly comprehensive database on severe accidents with emphasis on the energy sector, was established by the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). The historical experience represented in this database was supplemented by probabilistic analyses for the nuclear energy, to carry out a detailed comparison of severe accident risks in the energy sector [1]. The database allows to perform comprehensive analyses of accident risks, which are not limited to power plants but cover full energy chains, including exploration, extraction, processing, storage, transports and waste management. The ENSAD database and the analysis have now been much extended, not only in terms of the data as such but also what concerns the scope of applications. This work has been mainly undertaken within the NewExt EC DG Research Project on “New Elements for the Assessment of External Costs from Energy Technologies”, which apart from the issue of accidents within non-nuclear energy chains [2] also addressed other unresolved issues in the context of energy externalities. The main objectives of the present work were: (a) to carry out comparativ