4 ms·

Cost is a non-answer. The cost of nuclear plants has gone up about 5x since the 70's due to regulation, which is entirely in the hands of the government.

toomuchtodo 5y ago
If your generator technology isn’t cost effective because of safety regulation, the problem is not regulation, it’s your generator technology. China recently had a reactor that nearly had a radiological release from damaged fuel rods. Even recently built reactors from newer designs have significant challenges. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/16/business/china-nuclear-reactor.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/16/business/china-nuclear-re...
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  In what universe does this viewpoint square with regulatory capture where you saddle your competition with requirements under the guise of safety, environmentalism (or some other feel good thing it's easy to peddle to the useful idiots)? We can all imagine a case where some locale that has a big steam turbine manufacturer who has successfully lobbied to get extraneous safety requirements slapped on windmills. Or some locale where oil is big so they regulate solar excessively. Remember, energy and other commodities have razor thin margins and make it up at scale. A handicap of a percent that's masquerading as Safety(TM) can massively affect adoption.
bryanlarsen 5y ago
Regulation isn't the only problem. The steam turbine of a nuclear plant by itself is more expensive than solar today. This is a similar turbine to that in a coal plant. So if coal plants are more expensive than solar, so is nuclear, even if there are no regulations. The problem isn't regulation, it's that any large infrastructure project in America is crazy expensive. Nuclear power plants are expensive because of regulation, but ev even more so for the same reason that bridges and subways are crazy expensive to build. Solar & wind are built in factories and so don't have this problem. People are trying to build nuclear plants in factories, which might be the solution.

toomuchtodo 5y ago

If your generator technology isn’t cost effective because of safety regulation, the problem is not regulation, it’s your generator technology. China recently had a reactor that nearly had a radiological release from damaged fuel rods. Even recently built reactors from newer designs have significant challenges. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/16/business/china-nuclear-reactor.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/16/business/china-nuclear-re...

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
In what universe does this viewpoint square with regulatory capture where you saddle your competition with requirements under the guise of safety, environmentalism (or some other feel good thing it's easy to peddle to the useful idiots)? We can all imagine a case where some locale that has a big steam turbine manufacturer who has successfully lobbied to get extraneous safety requirements slapped on windmills. Or some locale where oil is big so they regulate solar excessively. Remember, energy and other commodities have razor thin margins and make it up at scale. A handicap of a percent that's masquerading as Safety(TM) can massively affect adoption.

bryanlarsen 5y ago

Regulation isn't the only problem. The steam turbine of a nuclear plant by itself is more expensive than solar today. This is a similar turbine to that in a coal plant. So if coal plants are more expensive than solar, so is nuclear, even if there are no regulations. The problem isn't regulation, it's that any large infrastructure project in America is crazy expensive. Nuclear power plants are expensive because of regulation, but ev even more so for the same reason that bridges and subways are crazy expensive to build. Solar & wind are built in factories and so don't have this problem. People are trying to build nuclear plants in factories, which might be the solution.