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This is a cool chart. So, there are still reactors getting built in other parts of the world, albeit fewer than in 70's and 80's. If it's regulatory, I'm surpr

This is a cool chart. So, there are still reactors getting built in other parts of the world, albeit fewer than in 70's and 80's. If it's regulatory, I'm surprised that more climate focused candidates don't campaign on streamlining regulations to make it possible for more plants to get built. It's essentially zero cost in comparison to other climate efforts that will cost billions / trillions in re-investment. I don't know a lot about renewables or energy production, but my understanding is that solar and wind are not good for base load unless there's a big improvement in storage technology (either batteries or some physical setup like the pair of lakes in West Virginia where they pump water around). So, nuclear is something we can do now that we know works. And since all these plants are at the end of their life, we can get a much more realistic picture of the total cost of ownership, instead of projections about what the produced power would cost.

reaperducer 7y ago
So, there are still reactors getting built in other parts of the world The map shows three currently under construction in the United States, which is more than any other country with under a billion people.
- waiseristy 7y ago
  The chart is misleading, 1 of those bubbles was canceled in 2017 (SUMMER 2-3). The other started in the 80's, got canceled, and then picked up again a few years back. The third is brand new
pjc50 7y ago
Deregulation is free until something goes wrong. The estimated $187bn cleanup cost of Fukushima is certainly very far from free.
- cronix 7y ago
  You don't even need to get to the point of a meltdown to be very expensive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Nuclear_Power_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Nuclear_Power_Plant
- merpnderp 7y ago
  Deregulation? Is there an industry more heavily regulated in Japan than the nuclear industry?
- roenxi 7y ago
  The approximate cause of Fukushima was a once-in-a-generation tsunami that exceeded the design constraints that the plant was built under. Whatever did go wrong at Fukushima wasn't deregulation. That sort of mistake can creep through in even an extremely well regulated environment. Also, the cost of the cleanup from the Tohoku earthquake that was linked to the tsunami was something like 300 billon; so maybe the fact that they had a design flaw in their nuclear plant maybe doubled the cleanup depending on what the figures on Wikipedia already factor the Fukushima clean up costs in. Doubling the cost of something is significant, but for an event of that rarity not really a deregulation concern. If you told me that there was a risk of a city being leveled by a tsunami and there was a chance my taxes rising by, say, an unnecessary 10% for 12 months I might (depending on which city) squint at you in confusion about why the 10% was a problem. I've payed 1% disaster levies in my lifetime. A slight chance of a moderate-in-context one off cost due to a series of unlikely coincidences just doesn't really rate as a major regulatory risk to me. I'd trust the regulators to deal with it for next time as part of their normal process. We have literally had to scour the globe for a decade to find an example where it matters.

reaperducer 7y ago

So, there are still reactors getting built in other parts of the world The map shows three currently under construction in the United States, which is more than any other country with under a billion people.

waiseristy 7y ago
The chart is misleading, 1 of those bubbles was canceled in 2017 (SUMMER 2-3). The other started in the 80's, got canceled, and then picked up again a few years back. The third is brand new

pjc50 7y ago

Deregulation is free until something goes wrong. The estimated $187bn cleanup cost of Fukushima is certainly very far from free.

cronix 7y ago
You don't even need to get to the point of a meltdown to be very expensive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Nuclear_Power_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Nuclear_Power_Plant
merpnderp 7y ago
Deregulation? Is there an industry more heavily regulated in Japan than the nuclear industry?
roenxi 7y ago
The approximate cause of Fukushima was a once-in-a-generation tsunami that exceeded the design constraints that the plant was built under. Whatever did go wrong at Fukushima wasn't deregulation. That sort of mistake can creep through in even an extremely well regulated environment. Also, the cost of the cleanup from the Tohoku earthquake that was linked to the tsunami was something like 300 billon; so maybe the fact that they had a design flaw in their nuclear plant maybe doubled the cleanup depending on what the figures on Wikipedia already factor the Fukushima clean up costs in. Doubling the cost of something is significant, but for an event of that rarity not really a deregulation concern. If you told me that there was a risk of a city being leveled by a tsunami and there was a chance my taxes rising by, say, an unnecessary 10% for 12 months I might (depending on which city) squint at you in confusion about why the 10% was a problem. I've payed 1% disaster levies in my lifetime. A slight chance of a moderate-in-context one off cost due to a series of unlikely coincidences just doesn't really rate as a major regulatory risk to me. I'd trust the regulators to deal with it for next time as part of their normal process. We have literally had to scour the globe for a decade to find an example where it matters.