Abstract

HERRERA, Soledad. Contributions from Public Economics to the analysis of the project of the construction of a nuclear power plant on the east coast of Río Negro, Northpatagonia, Argentina. Rev. Pilquen. secc. cienc. soc. [online]. 2018, vol.21, n.2, pp.127-143. ISSN 1851-3123.

In May of 2017, the national and subnational authorities made public the construction of a nuclear power plant on the east coast of the Río Negro province. Growing discontent among civil society members in Viedma and the surroundings as well as several manifestations followed this announcement. In September the provincial government dropped the project and it sanctioned the law 5227, which prohibits the construction of nuclear power plants in the provincial territory. This article, based on a qualitative and exploratory investigation, aims to analyze the planned project and its possible impact on the regional development through the application of tools and concepts of the field of Public Economy. Firstly, the nuclear power plant project is analyzed within the framework of the Public-Policy-Making Cycle and economic evaluation topics of public projects. The analysis focuses on the role of the national and regional territorial scales and takes into consideration the concept of intergenerational equity. In the final considerations, this article highlights the complexity of the analysis of the impacts of the nuclear power plant project in relation to the promotion of regional development. The costs and benefits related to the project are uneven distributed between the national and the provincial level. The intergenerational distribution would be also unequal.

Keywords : Public Policy; Economic Evaluation; Intergenerational Equity; Nuclear Power Energy; Regional Development.