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The fundamental problem with nuclear power plants is that, even if you do count them as clean power, they're not an economically viable way of generating it in
by makomk 9y ago
The fundamental problem with nuclear power plants is that, even if you do count them as clean power, they're not an economically viable way of generating it in the modern renewable era. They have the same flexibility and operating cost issues that are killing coal, only more so, and there's no real way around this.
Sure, it's possible to operate them in load-following mode somewhat (though US regulations don't allow it), but even French energy giant EDF doesn't think that's going to be enough to cope with a grid with high levels of renewable generation; their proposed solution is to change the rules so solar and wind power has to shut down instead of the nuclear plants. (I think it may only get you to coal-power-plant levels of output modulation at best.) Output modulation also reduces plant lifespan and increases operational complexity; not good for something that's already too expensive to build and operate. Similarly, large-scale storage would substantially increase the price of nuclear power.
There just isn't any avoiding the fact that nuclear power is expensive, and the only to make it viable is to put up everyone's power bills substantially, whether it's by increasing the cost of other generation options via taxes and less favourable operating rules for renewables or just outright putting a tax on electricity that's paid straight to nuclear operators.
- klondike_ 9y agoMost reactors in the US are old and require a lot of maintenance. I think that if the US built modern reactors like those in Canada and France nuclear could be more price competitive. Unfortunately most proposals to build new plants are shot down pretty quickly by red tape and NIMBYs
- fulafel 9y agoNew reactors are plagued by huge, hundreds of percent cost and schedule overruns, over originally expensive plans. See the current EPR projects.
- fulafel 9y ago> They have the same flexibility and operating cost issues that are killing coal Do you have any references for this? The common characterization that you hear is just the opposite: nuclear is expensive in upfront investments but cheaper to operate than coal. In the future when the production mix gets more unpredictable, always-on generation should get a profitability boost. A producer who can promise 24/7 production is in a strong position on a market that is largely based on unertain producers trying to sell future uncertain output to producers whose demand is inflexible.
- makomk 9y agoHmmm. I can't get up-to-date operating cost figures for coal specifically, but US nuclear is barely cheaper to operate than fossil-powered steam generation in general these days: https://www.eia.gov/electricity/annual/html/epa_08_04.html https://www.eia.gov/electricity/annual/html/epa_08_04.html (Coal is generally cheaper than the average.) The nasty catch here, of course, is that most of the fossil fuel costs are from fuel and most of the nuclear costs are operation and maintenance. Heavy load following decrease fuel costs but increases operation and maintenance costs - it's more complex to operate a nuclear plant that way, the added thermal stresses increase wear accelerate failures, and the total power generated is lower. That's why nuclear is usually treated as always-on baseload power; not because it's the only way it can be operated, but because it's the most economically viable one.
- fulafel 9y agoIn that table, "Fossil steam" is 42.2% more expensive to operate than nuclear[1], that's pretty significant. In jurisdictions that have already joined the carbon trading traties, there's an additional big operating cost in the emission credits that would make the coal position significantly worse still. USA and other lagging countries will have to join too soon or we'll all pay a vastly higher price in the form of deterioration of living conditions. [1] "Total" value for the most recent available year is 25.36 for nuclear, 36.08 for fossil steam