Thank you for sharing your source. I’d prefer a document instead of a 23 minute video, but it is valid for how you arrived at your conclusion.
However, the source video makes some wildly incorrect assumptions to arrive at nuclear profitability.
We have the benefit of new reactors coming online in the USA in just the last year, so our numbers are current for real world nuclear plant costs. This would be the Vogtle nuclear power station in Georgia source.
This example is even more favorable to the argument for nuclear profitability. The plant already existed prior and the recent construction was simply adding additional reactors. So there should be some economies of scale. Here’s how that shook out compared to your video:
So your source wildly underestimated the cost and time to build (and likely the interest rate). Keep in mind, they also build reactor Unit 4 at about the same time (coming online about a year later). The cost of Unit 3 and Unit 4 was $35m to build and started in 2009. I was generous and only used a single reactor cost as the video’s example did for apples-to-apples comparison.
These factors destroy the argument that new modern nuclear building in the USA is profitable.
Thank you for sharing your source. I’d prefer a document instead of a 23 minute video, but it is valid for how you arrived at your conclusion.
However, the source video makes some wildly incorrect assumptions to arrive at nuclear profitability.
We have the benefit of new reactors coming online in the USA in just the last year, so our numbers are current for real world nuclear plant costs. This would be the Vogtle nuclear power station in Georgia source.
This example is even more favorable to the argument for nuclear profitability. The plant already existed prior and the recent construction was simply adding additional reactors. So there should be some economies of scale. Here’s how that shook out compared to your video:
So your source wildly underestimated the cost and time to build (and likely the interest rate). Keep in mind, they also build reactor Unit 4 at about the same time (coming online about a year later). The cost of Unit 3 and Unit 4 was $35m to build and started in 2009. I was generous and only used a single reactor cost as the video’s example did for apples-to-apples comparison.
These factors destroy the argument that new modern nuclear building in the USA is profitable.