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I can't prove it (not an accountant), but commercial nuclear has never made money anywhere, in any country. It's always subsidised by the government (to suppor

by BMc2020 5y ago

I can't prove it (not an accountant), but commercial nuclear has never made money anywhere, in any country. It's always subsidised by the government (to support military nuclear). When you dig into it they get loan guarantees, favoritism, and using accounting tricks like wishing away decommissioning costs by claiming reactors will be working for 60 or even 100 years. The US DOE basically supports the US nuclear power industry, budget wise. Advocates always point out the very low death rate from nuclear accidents (true) but fall silent on the cost of making 150 square km of Japan uninhabitable. TL:DR; Nuclear has many benefits over over the carbon club but being cheaper is not one of them.

MisterMower 5y ago
The same outcome would befall wind and solar energy if you applied the same regulatory structure and burden to them. Cost would balloon and innovation would stop. Try making wind farms abide the same siesmic requirements and end of life plans that we hold nuclear to. They would become wildly expensive and uneconomical. Swap regulatory structures between wind and nuclear, wait two decades and you’ll see a bunch of NYT articles talking about how toxic it is for workers and the environment to be sawing fiberglass wind turbine blades into pieces to dump in a landfill when they are no longer economically viable due to asinine regulations.
- cycomanic 5y ago
  But that is the case already, solar/ wind farms have to have decommission plans, environmental impact plans etc. In fact building a wind farm faces large amount of regulations. I'd argue considering the difference in consequences of failure it's the amount of regulations faced by wind and solar compared to solar is quite unfair. I also find the arguement that we should put the same regulations on solar wind as on nuclear weird. The consequences of a failure is many orders of magnitude different, the considerations when decommissioning are vastly different etc..
  - CryptoPunk 5y ago
    Solar/wind don't have to abide by anywhere near the same amount of regulations as nuclear, your second point notwithstanding.
- BMc2020 5y ago
  The same outcome would befall wind and solar energy if you applied the same regulatory structure and burden to them.. Incorrect. The Russians, Chinese, French, Koreans et. al. have wildly different regulatory burdens and they can't do it either. The PRC bought some Westinghouse AP1000s, stole the design, tried to copy, ended up way late and way over budget.

MisterMower 5y ago

The same outcome would befall wind and solar energy if you applied the same regulatory structure and burden to them. Cost would balloon and innovation would stop. Try making wind farms abide the same siesmic requirements and end of life plans that we hold nuclear to. They would become wildly expensive and uneconomical. Swap regulatory structures between wind and nuclear, wait two decades and you’ll see a bunch of NYT articles talking about how toxic it is for workers and the environment to be sawing fiberglass wind turbine blades into pieces to dump in a landfill when they are no longer economically viable due to asinine regulations.

cycomanic 5y ago
But that is the case already, solar/ wind farms have to have decommission plans, environmental impact plans etc. In fact building a wind farm faces large amount of regulations. I'd argue considering the difference in consequences of failure it's the amount of regulations faced by wind and solar compared to solar is quite unfair. I also find the arguement that we should put the same regulations on solar wind as on nuclear weird. The consequences of a failure is many orders of magnitude different, the considerations when decommissioning are vastly different etc..
- CryptoPunk 5y ago
  Solar/wind don't have to abide by anywhere near the same amount of regulations as nuclear, your second point notwithstanding.
BMc2020 5y ago
The same outcome would befall wind and solar energy if you applied the same regulatory structure and burden to them.. Incorrect. The Russians, Chinese, French, Koreans et. al. have wildly different regulatory burdens and they can't do it either. The PRC bought some Westinghouse AP1000s, stole the design, tried to copy, ended up way late and way over budget.