3 ms·

Is nuclear power so very expensive right now? My understanding is that one of the main drivers behind the huge up front costs of nuclear power is that the buil

Is nuclear power so very expensive right now? My understanding is that one of the main drivers behind the huge up front costs of nuclear power is that the builder had to take out a loan to cover the cost of construction before the wheels of regulatory approval started turning. After several years approval would be granted and then construction would still take quite a bit more time. And over all this time that initial loan was accumulating interest - often doubling or more the total capital cost of building a new plant. But these days interest rates are pretty low and I wonder how much this has affected the price of building new nuclear power plants.

bipson 7y ago
"The project completion cost at Hinkley Point C is now estimated at 21.5 billion to 22.5 billion pounds". [1] Agreed, the project hit some regulatory roadblocks, yet, this is a lot of money. The original cost bid was 18 billion already. Imagine how much solar/wind that would give you. And the costs for operation and waste storage are not even considered. Also in this article: "The giant atomic project is expensive compared with U.K. wind, for example, where power from the latest offshore auction sold at less than half that from Hinkley" [...] "The additional costs will be borne by EDF [...], though they’re still set to receive 92.50 pounds for every megawatt-hour of power Hinkley generates -- more than double the current market price" [1] This is a state-of-the-art reactor. Nuclear is not the solution, particularly not the "cheapest", and particularly not green. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-25/edf-raises-cost-of-flagship-u-k-nuclear-project-warns-of-delay https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-25/edf-raise... edit: forgot to cite source