Doh! Nuclear reactors cost more than expected, a lot more
While we don't want to build new coal power plants, and renewable technology is not quite ready to meet demand -- going nuclear might be a more of a pain in the pocketbook than previously thought. As old power plants reach the end of their lifespans and start to be decommissioned, they've got to be replaced to keep our energy-hungry economy working -- but with what? For a while now, nuclear power has been looking like the obvious go-to power source while we figure out how to make renewable energy more productive. But, as investors start to actually move forward with their plans, they're getting a major dose of sticker-shock. The price of building a nuclear reactor has gone up since the last time we checked. In fact, it's doubled or even quadrupled most rough estimates. Ouch.
Developers are now looking at shelling out $5-12 billion per nuclear power plant, and of course that cost will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher energy prices. Bummer. Basically, it looks like the US has kinda missed the boat on affordable nuclear -- since we haven't built much in the way of nuclear projects since the 70's.
Right now, everyone and their mother is trying to build nuclear power plants to cut down on their greenhouse gases -- although we're not quite sure that nuclear is much better. There's only one company that's forging the necessary reactor cores, and orders are backing up. As we learned in Econ101, as demand goes up, prices go up too. Oops.
[via Treehugger]
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