Is Nuclear Power “Too Expensive”?

The best argument against nuclear power, maybe the only real argument, is that nuclear power is “too slow” to build and is “too expensive” to finance. Is this true? Or is it another myth, like glowing green goo, that needs debunking? Noted Nuclear Zaddy Kyle Hill finally digs into the economics of nuclear power.

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[flyingfree]

Back in the 1960s the US built nuclear plants in just 4 years, one of those plants is still in operation today, more than half a century later.

[joelb]

I'm a retired Health Physicist and spent most of my time educating people on ionizing radiation. Your work is invaluable, the lack of knowledge I encountered is staggering.

[ClannerA]

0:30 Too long is when it's longer than the term of a congressman so he can't take credit for it.

[dunzerkug]

A good parallel for the "meltdown cleanup" cost is a real issue with coal that no one discusses. Coal ash storage contaminating ground water, a real issue for older plants with inadequate storage areas. The precautions for it that are now required haven't yet stood the test of time and are vulnerable to natural disasters like earthquakes cracking containment barriers or floods letting the ash leach into waterways.

[cloutr]

Too expensive when all your assets are in fossil fuels

[Keegmeister]

Nuclear power is expensive, but a clean environment is priceless.

[nevermindmeijustinjectedaw]

imagine adding a 9/11 fee to every skyscraper ever built lol

[constitution]

It’s almost as if… a lack of a nuclear power industry drives up prices and increases wait times while hampering innovation… 🤔

[eputty]

the issue with nuclear power... is a lack of nuclear power. We need more to prove points, and need more to replace coal plants.

[zuko]

It's worth noting that in the US each nuclear power plant is custom engineered. Which includes a lot of review costs and studies and safety evaluations. If we could get a design that could easily be replicated wherever it's built it would reduce a lot of time and cost.

[allthenewsordeath]

Nuclear power is one of those things that anyone who is remotely informed on the issue agrees is a good idea, of course it’s not a politician’s job to be remotely informed on any issue.

[DefiantPunk]

The only YouTuber who's sponsor is consistently practical and something I'd consider using. That's pretty damn rare.

[Ikbeneengeit]

The Netherlands is also having this debate. A study by our universities showed that indeed the lowest system cost for clean electricity is a combination of wind, solar, batteries and nuclear. Great overview, Kyle.

[absolutechaos]

I was involved in a research reactor project here in the US. The first was a small test reactor. It was completed on time and on budget. They had some difficulties getting everything tuned, but from what I heard, that wasn't unexpected for a testbed.

The larger production reactors ran 4 years late and were 100% over budget. It still hasn't been turned on, and I don't think the spicy rocks have even shown up yet.

The biggest difference between the two? The test reactor was designed to research reactor regulations. The production reactors were voluntarily built to powerplant regulations.

[miss_bec]

"It's just meat"
"What do you mean its JUST meat, go to the car aisle"
"There's more meat"
"What? Where are you?"
"I'm at Meat"
"WHY ARE YOU BUYING A CAR AT THE MEAT STORE??"

[Shadowkey]

“Too expensive” is the complaint of people who don’t want to switch away from fossil fuels.

[DanielSmith-uyyg]

Illinois professor did a good breakdown of the cost of nuclear power. He even explains the great idea of building nuclear power plants in decommissioned coal and gas plants (or decommissioning them for the purpose of it) as the infrastructure (cooling water, turbine hall, power transmission infrastructure etc) is already in place. I have also always thought beside hydro electric dams would be another great place to build as there is good access to water and power distribution infrastructure.

I think the big thing people need to understand is no one power source will solve all our problems we need them all. To quote Issac Arthur from S.F.I.A. "when asked whether I want wind or solar or hydro or geothermal or nuclear, I say yes please!"

[PyroX]

The land use comparisons gave me SimCity flashbacks of just how much space you had to use for wind turbines to produce enough power for your city vs using nuclear plants

[danielcobia]

Before watching more than 1:39 in: I suspect there's a fair amount of the economics bit that's actually tied up in government regulation. Which would make ANYTHING more expensive and time consuming with the volume of the government BS that I'm aware of involved in Nuclear power.

[TheTimeGnome]

As some whose worked in engineering for construction. The costs for building a nuclear power plant is absurdly expensive (vs LNG or wind/solar) for the owner and take a very long time for a ROI.