Özet:

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, the need for energy is constantly increasing due to economic development. The way in which OECD countries meet the growing energy needs can have a significant impact on energy prices in the world energy market. On the other hand, the concentration of these countries in different areas in the energy sector also affects the technological developments in these areas to a significant extent. Therefore, these countries are an important actor in the world energy market. Investigation of the relationship between nuclear energy and macroeconomic variables of these countries will explain how the interaction in both the energy market and the economic sphere occurs. In this study, 480 country / year data are analyzed. As a result of the balanced panel data analysis CO2, energy density, fossil, renewable energy, oil price and GDP are statistically significant indicators. From these variables, CO2 and energy intensity variables are positively related to the nuclear energy consumption. Fossil, renewable energy, oil price and GDP variables are negatively associated with nuclear energy consumption. When the coefficients of meaningful variables are interpreted individually a 1 unit increase in total carbon dioxide emission increases the nuclear energy consumption by 0.79 units. Again, a 1 unit increase in energy density increases nuclear energy consumption by 0.0003 units. A 1 unit increase in fossil fuel consumption reduces nuclear energy consumption by 0.081 units. Moreover, an increase in renewable energy consumption by 1 unit reduces nuclear energy consumption by 0.22 units. The 1 unit change in the oil prices variable reduces the nuclear energy consumption by 0.0015 units. Finally, a 1-unit increase in GDP at fixed prices per capita decreases nuclear energy consumption by 0.00002 units. The biggest impact on nuclear energy consumption is the carbon dioxide variable. The reason for the negative relationship between the renewable energy consumption and the nuclear energy consumption may have been due to the fact that the countries that have reached a certain level of welfare have moved away from the nuclear energy consumption and turned to renewable energy. Results from the econometric analysis are compatible with the previous studies such as Apergis and Payne (2010a), Apergis et al. (2010b), Omri and Chaibi (2014), Menyah and Wolde-Rufael (2010).

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