3 ms·
Nuclear doesn't make financial sense in Europe either. The French taxpayer is forking over billions of euros to keep their reactors online, as is the German tax
by missedthecue 4y ago
Nuclear doesn't make financial sense in Europe either. The French taxpayer is forking over billions of euros to keep their reactors online, as is the German taxpayer. Finland's latest nuclear reactor had cost-overruns somewhere in the neighborhood of 350%
The only place on planet earth right now where nuclear might be financially sustainable is China, where highly skilled construction labor is very cheap, where they are building dozens of nuclear reactors in bulk, and where regulatory hurdles don't exist on account of their... administrative system.
But that is only my speculation. We don't have insight into their cost figures, and any data released by the CCP has probably been massaged.
- Schroedingersat 4y agoKepco release figures they claim are the costs (but probably not including cost of the loan or a bunch of other things). They're also far lower capacity factor than the US (whether that's a symptom of lower reliability or of lower costs permitting curtailment is a different matter) and we know of at least two instances of cost cutting and forgery on safety critical parts.
- missedthecue 4y agoKepco is shutting down a lot of nuclear plants too. I think at least half are slated to be shut down permanently over the next few years
- Schroedingersat 4y agoThey're going with the netherlands/russian model of milking other countries' taxpayers now that the local well has run dry.