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As far as life-cycle costs go: what about end of life? That's the big elephant in the room. Over the past decades, a couple of hundreds of plants have been bui
by CaptArmchair 4y ago
As far as life-cycle costs go: what about end of life? That's the big elephant in the room.
Over the past decades, a couple of hundreds of plants have been build globally. Doing nuclear fission safely is a massively complex technological undertaking. While the basic principles are by and large the same, the concrete designs of each of those plants aren't similar. Therefor, decommissioning a nuclear plant is equally complex and expensive, and requires a per-case approach. And currently, there is a growing number of plants which are pretty much EOL, where upkeep costs outstrip revenue.
Sure, there's an argument to be made about the operational costs per kWh between solar / wind / nuclear relative to the revenue they generate over their lifespan. But compared to solar / wind, the perceived economical benefits of those solutions are also offset by their initial cost of construction and their decommissioning.
If consumers / voters / taxpayers assume that they get to enjoy cheap power while the costs of those won't ever land on their doorstep, they are in for a surprise.
- acidburnNSA 4y agoNuclear plants pay a fraction of their revenue through their life into special decommissioning funds that have so far been more than enough to perform full greenfield decommissioning. For waste, there's a separate fund called the Nuclear Waste Fund in the US (and other nuclear-operating countries) that has a current balance of $55B.
- ncmncm 4y agoFalse. They are collecting from the fund, instead.
- q1w2 4y ago> Doing nuclear fission safely is a massively complex technological undertaking. Finland has proven this to be false. ...and frankly, so did the US even in the 1980s. The roadblock to storage misguided activism, not science or tachnology. Reopen the Yucca storage facility. It has the space for literally ALL the US's spent fuel storage.
- ncmncm 4y agoFalse. It took them more than a decade beyond schedule, and 5 billion euros beyond quoted cost. The finally delivered only because it was clear the money would dry up either way. If they could have strung it out further, they would have