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China is building a whole lot of new reactors, and the ones that came online most recently took about 5-6 years from start of construction to finish, which is s

China is building a whole lot of new reactors, and the ones that came online most recently took about 5-6 years from start of construction to finish, which is substantially less than a decade. Japan, prior to the shutdown, was able to build new nuclear plants in 4-5 years. It's certainly possible to construct new, modern nuclear plants smoothly and quickly, and countries capable of this are the ones that are doing most of the nuclear plant construction. You hear disproportionately about debacles like Flamanville Unit 3 in France (under construction since 2007, with heavy cost overruns), and they're indicative of some serious problems with France's ability to get reactors built, but worldwide they're the exception.

derriz 5y ago
The USA hasn't done much better at delivering nuclear reactors on time or on budget in the last 3 decades: Vogtle, VC Summer, Bellefonte, for example. The only reactors to come online in that time is Watts Barr 1 and 2 and Comanche Peak 2 all of which started construction in the 1970s. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogtle_Electric_Generating_Plant#Units_3_and_4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogtle_Electric_Generating_Pla... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil_C._Summer_Nuclear_Generating_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil_C._Summer_Nuclear_Gener...
natmaka 5y ago
> China The EPR projects weren't such successes, they were overbudget and overschedule. Then an incident lead to a shutdown for examination. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPR_(nuclear_reactor)#Taishan_1_and_2_(China) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPR_(nuclear_reactor)#Taishan_... https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/31/asia/taishan-nuclear-plant-intl-hnk/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/31/asia/taishan-nuclear-plan...
kakwa_ 5y ago
4 to 6 years is possible, but more of a best-case scenario. If you look for example, the nuclear reactor built in France in the 70ies and 80ies took generally between 5 and 9 years to build, with the newer and greater capacity reactors taking significantly more time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_nuclear_reactors#France https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_nuclear_rea... Keep in mind that it was at the pick of Nuclear reactor construction. These are really large projects with tons of suppliers and contractors to coordinate. There is a lot of experience and institutional knowledge needed, but which has been unfortunately partially lost with the significant slowing down of new constructions in the late 80ies/90ies. Also, this slowing down also had a significant effect on the supply chains, often leaving very few companies key components/sub-systems. Flamanville 3 is definitely a poorly lead project and a big outlier, but, a country re-starting its nuclear construction, the first units would probably take ~10 years to come online.

derriz 5y ago

The USA hasn't done much better at delivering nuclear reactors on time or on budget in the last 3 decades: Vogtle, VC Summer, Bellefonte, for example. The only reactors to come online in that time is Watts Barr 1 and 2 and Comanche Peak 2 all of which started construction in the 1970s. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogtle_Electric_Generating_Plant#Units_3_and_4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogtle_Electric_Generating_Pla... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil_C._Summer_Nuclear_Generating_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil_C._Summer_Nuclear_Gener...

natmaka 5y ago

> China The EPR projects weren't such successes, they were overbudget and overschedule. Then an incident lead to a shutdown for examination. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPR_(nuclear_reactor)#Taishan_1_and_2_(China) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPR_(nuclear_reactor)#Taishan_... https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/31/asia/taishan-nuclear-plant-intl-hnk/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/31/asia/taishan-nuclear-plan...

kakwa_ 5y ago

4 to 6 years is possible, but more of a best-case scenario. If you look for example, the nuclear reactor built in France in the 70ies and 80ies took generally between 5 and 9 years to build, with the newer and greater capacity reactors taking significantly more time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_nuclear_reactors#France https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_nuclear_rea... Keep in mind that it was at the pick of Nuclear reactor construction. These are really large projects with tons of suppliers and contractors to coordinate. There is a lot of experience and institutional knowledge needed, but which has been unfortunately partially lost with the significant slowing down of new constructions in the late 80ies/90ies. Also, this slowing down also had a significant effect on the supply chains, often leaving very few companies key components/sub-systems. Flamanville 3 is definitely a poorly lead project and a big outlier, but, a country re-starting its nuclear construction, the first units would probably take ~10 years to come online.