Why Nuclear Reactors are so Expensive ?

The Tale of Nuclear Energy is a sad one.

It is a story about how fear, politics, and ignorance fueled the war against nuclear power. And how, we can still turn it around. But first, we must travel back to the 1970s when Nuclear Energy was at it's peak.


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In the chart above, it shows the cost to build a 1 gigawatt reactor. (adjusted for inflation)
We see that in 1972, the cost was about 380 million, in 1988, it was around 2400 million. 

In one example, it costed Philadelphia Electric 382 million to build the reactor in 1974 and 2.9 billion in 1988.

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WHY ?!$##?!!%**

The chart shows costs for a nuclear power plant (in hundreds of dollars) per 1kw in 1987.

The Median Experience Column is the cost for a nuclear powerplant (totals $ 1520 per kw) and the Coal Burning is -- you guessed it, totals the cost for coal. 

So why is this the case. The reason is extreme regulations. Since the public was scared via fear tactics and misinformation, their was a war against nuclear. The labor and construction costs skyrocketed to carry them out. The time it took to build the plant doubled, doubling the labor costs. As you can see, nuclear reactor construction costs became too expensive and could not compete. Also, the amount of materials used increased too. It was estimated that it took 42% more concrete to build. 

Furthermore, with Nuclear Technology advancing, it is still grounded by unfair regulations. 

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Even with this disadvantage, Nuclear Energy is still very cheap.




In many cases, nuclear energy is still cheaper than coal, even with the extreme regulations This is because since Nuclear Energy is so efficient, it is able to extract huge amounts of energy out of their fuel. Consequently, .....





Just view the right column. The other 2, may mislead you. It is basically saying that although enriched uranium is $ 680/kg, it provides 20,000 X the electricity than the others.


Unfortunately, even with these extremely cheap electricity prices, investors do not build nuclear plants do to the high risk involved due to regulations/public viewpoint. 

For instance, back in the 1970s-80s, NY closed a perfectly functional nuclear plant because of protests. Also, a nuclear plant was not able to operate for years because it was at the borderline between 2 states and the other state's governor opposed it. There are lots of these poster child stories.



The bottom line comes down to this.