Why are nuclear plants so expensive? Mainly it's the cost of building one, with a recently cancelled Florida nuke plant exceeding $20 billion. Yet, once a nuke plant stops operating and must be decommissioned, another huge bill comes due. How big?
In the case of Three Mile Island, current estimates are $950 million for just decommissioning the plant.
http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2013/08/28/feds-seek-public-input-on-plan-to-decommission-three-mile-island/.
That $950 million decommissioning bill is enough money to build a 1,000 megawatt natural gas plant or a 500 megawatt wind farm. It is a huge amount of money all by itself.
Yet, it is just a small part of the total costs of building, running, and decommissioning a nuclear plant.
And you summarize the problem with development of all types, energy included: externalized cost, with privatized profits. We must get better at quantifying and assessing costs of any for-profit venture.
ReplyDeleteJohn, you failed to mention that the plant owner is required to establish a decommissioning fund into which money is deposited each year of operation.
ReplyDeleteAlso, there is a place (or places) to dispose of most of the decommissioning waste, it is only the high level waste that is an issue. By the way, waste disposal is not a technical issue, it is a political issue.
Good points. Ratepayers have been paying into that fund for years. Shareholders have not. The political will problem on a waste site has proven so far insurmontable. I am now thinking that the waste will remain on site for many, many decades. Perhaps forever. I hope I am wrong.
DeleteI would extend your point to municipal utilities and rural electric cooperatives that operate generation plants. These non-profits operate nukes, coal, gas, oil--all types of plants. They too are externalizing costs.
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