Would have been nice if we were installing nuclear plants for the last two decades (second best time to start is today). Instead we are getting wind/solar backed by natural gas.
Utility-scale batteries are getting to the point of displacing a bunch of that gas. Nuclear is sufficiently expensive that we’re probably only going to use modest amounts of it.
I think nuclear is expensive in part because we didn’t build enough of it. The more you build of something the more costs come down.
An opportunity was lost in the 80s when everybody abandoned nuclear as oil prices were coming down and energy demand stagnated. And Three Mile Island just happened which, understandably, made utilities nervous to invest in nuclear.
China and South Korea have much lower plant build cost and timelines. The really high delays and cost increases in the west are more an indication of problems in beauracracy and contract writing than fundamental to nuclear technology.
Would have been nice if we were installing nuclear plants for the last two decades (second best time to start is today). Instead we are getting wind/solar backed by natural gas.
Utility-scale batteries are getting to the point of displacing a bunch of that gas. Nuclear is sufficiently expensive that we’re probably only going to use modest amounts of it.
I think nuclear is expensive in part because we didn’t build enough of it. The more you build of something the more costs come down.
An opportunity was lost in the 80s when everybody abandoned nuclear as oil prices were coming down and energy demand stagnated. And Three Mile Island just happened which, understandably, made utilities nervous to invest in nuclear.
China and South Korea have much lower plant build cost and timelines. The really high delays and cost increases in the west are more an indication of problems in beauracracy and contract writing than fundamental to nuclear technology.
Maybe. And in the mean time we will keep burning that natural gas while a solution we can build out today sits idle.
PG&E: let’s shut down 3.7GW of power generation; solar should cover everything.
Oh it doesn’t? Raise the rates! More profit!
The CEO gets what, $10M annual now?