3 ms·

France is not doing well, they are sadly failing like everyone else in the Western Hemisphere, quite miserable! Flamanville is a complete disaster. Olkiluoto c

France is not doing well, they are sadly failing like everyone else in the Western Hemisphere, quite miserable! Flamanville is a complete disaster. Olkiluoto continues to be a problem, and is still not running at full power. Or perhaps you were referring to the reactors built 40-50 years ago? That is exactly what I'm not referring to, that was a different era with completely different economic costs and complete different economic capabilities. France has spent the last 15 years proving that they can no longer build nuclear on time or near budget. And the cost of France's reactors builds decades ago increases with additional reactors. A persistent amount of negative learning curve has been observed in France, and in the US. Construction productivity has barely improved over the past forty years, and at the same time manufacturing productivity has gone through the roof. Since nuclear is a constructed technology, it's unlikely to ever be able to catch up to a power system where most of the costs come from manufactured components.

throwaway2037 4y ago
Excellent reply. Thank you to provide clear counterpoints that "France nuclear power is cheap". My feeling about out of control costs for nuclear power comes from the audit requirements. Each part must be carefully inspected and its origin must be fully documented. Compared to fossil fuel power plants, the cost must be 10x. As a result, nuclear power becomes unaffordable when considering this important requirement. Real question: I know nothing about the actual realised cost of China nuclear power plants. So far, their safety record appears quite good. However, I assume their audit requirements for each part are much lower than highly advanced economies. Lastly, you wrote "everyone else in the Western Hemisphere": Let's be real. If Japan were to ever build a new nuclear power plant the audit plus safety costs would be absolutely insane and unaffordable. I guess Japan will run down all of its plants in the next 25-50 years, then replace everything with renewables (including batteries).

throwaway2037 4y ago

Excellent reply. Thank you to provide clear counterpoints that "France nuclear power is cheap". My feeling about out of control costs for nuclear power comes from the audit requirements. Each part must be carefully inspected and its origin must be fully documented. Compared to fossil fuel power plants, the cost must be 10x. As a result, nuclear power becomes unaffordable when considering this important requirement. Real question: I know nothing about the actual realised cost of China nuclear power plants. So far, their safety record appears quite good. However, I assume their audit requirements for each part are much lower than highly advanced economies. Lastly, you wrote "everyone else in the Western Hemisphere": Let's be real. If Japan were to ever build a new nuclear power plant the audit plus safety costs would be absolutely insane and unaffordable. I guess Japan will run down all of its plants in the next 25-50 years, then replace everything with renewables (including batteries).