5 ms·

In other words, nuke cost has only ever increased, however much was built.

• Manuel_D 3y ago
  On a per-MW basis nuclear power dropped in cost during the 1950s. See the small blue dots round the late 1950s and early 60s? Compare that with the cluster of red dots.
  • wolverine876 3y ago
    Early, low-hanging fruit?
    • Manuel_D 3y ago
      That, and larger plants. Things like concrete containment vessels have costs relative to the surface area of a hemisphere, while power output scales with the volume. But the big driver was economies of scale. Building multiple copies of the same or similar design means you can have longer production runs of steam generators, pressure vessels, turbines, etc.
  • angiosperm 3y ago
    I.e., cost has risen monotonically since the 1950s.
    • Manuel_D 3y ago
      Incorrect, it fell from the 1950s through the 1960s.
      • angiosperm 3y ago
        I.e., cost has risen monotonically since the '60s. Costs were all over the map in the 50s.
        • pfdietz 3y ago
          In the early days, vendors didn't know how much NPPs would cost, so they priced them to sell, so they could gain that data. Later prices reflected that experience. One can view the increase over time of nuclear costs as the replacement of wishful thinking with actual experience.