The economics of Nuclear Power
Don Richardson volunteered to get some current data on the actual cost of nuclear power. He gathered facts from a dozen recognized experts and wrote up a summary of twenty-three pages. With his permission, the following are a few enlightening facts and figures.
Real Cost of Nuclear Power Published by Mark Cooper of The Institute for Energy and Environment - Vermont University.
Cost per KWHr: Nuclear = 12 to 20 cents, renewables and efficiency = 6 cents Cost of one hundred new nuclear plants (the nuclear renaissance) = 1.4 to 4.4 trillion Dollars more than renewables (over the average 24 year life span of nuclear plants) Construction costs currently are seven times estimates. Construction times are twice estimates. Construction funding is a triad of Government subsidies, guaranteed federal loans, and rate hikes to consumers during the construction period (even if the plant is not completed, A 50/50 probability according to the Congressional Budget Office).
Lester Brown of The Earth Policy Institute and information from Amory Lovin’s book, “Nuclear Illusion.”
The reported cost of Nuclear Power by the industry is 14 cents per KWHour. This does not include waste disposal, insurance or decommission (an average total of 1.8 billion dollars for each reactor).
Yucca Waste Repository = 96 billion dollars so far, 19 years behind schedule and now condemned. Nuclear accident liability = 700 billion (worst case scenario). The insurance pool would pay 10 billion and taxpayers would cover the balance. Uranium $10 / lb. in 2002 and $60 / lb in 2009 Declining average content in the ore (currently down to 0.7%) Attrition in the number of nuclear reactors through retirement: 439 reactors in 2008, 346 in 2015 and 184 in 2025.
Michelle Boyd
The Construction of a 1600 megawatt reactor is estimated at 9.6 billion dollars. The Reprocessing of nuclear “waste” as being heavily lobbied to Congress would cap 700 billion dollars.
Jan Willem Storm, VanLeeuwen and Philip Smith
In depth studies and reporting over time of energy consumption and production by nuclear power. “ In essence, the energy requirements of the entire nuclear fuel cycle exceed the output from nuclear plants. They are not only a waste of money and time, they foreclose better options.” “As the nuclear power industry is forced to use lower grade uranium ore, the mining of uranium and its enrichment will require ever more fossil fuels and produce more CO2 emissions than comparable natural gas fired plants.”
Abstracted by Stan Dienst
