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Okay, but the other commenters are saying that fuel is around 6% of the cost of running a fission plant. Do you really think fuel availability will be a decisi
by duvenaud 5y ago
Okay, but the other commenters are saying that fuel is around 6% of the cost of running a fission plant. Do you really think fuel availability will be a decisive factor in say, the next 60 years?
- ncmncm 5y agoIn a word, no. Fission is already not competitive, so a technology much more expensive to build and operate is even less so. In ten years, solar and wind will be even cheaper than today, and will be supplying most of our energy needs.
- MagnumOpus 5y agoFission is non-competitive only because governments don't want it to be. France's nuclear fleet built in the 60s/70s with more primitive tech has capital/operating costs of 7c/kWh, which is fairly similar to commercial solar or wind in France - and is the cheapest option once you double the cost of the latter to account for extra storage/smart grids/other intermittency handling. (Not every place is Southern California where there are no clouds and the sun shines all year. Solar is cheap in some places, but not at high latitudes.)
- ncmncm 5y agoFission is not competitive because of high operational expenses, very long construction, and very high capital commitment, none of which will follow plummeting solar/wind/storage costs. So it gets less competitive with each passing day. Wind does not confine itself to lower latitudes.