It has been fifty years that “oh no they take so long to build, better never start” that by today we would have completely decarbonized energy generation if we started actually building them.
Knowing nothing about the process, can i ask, is the time it takes to build one based on current standards? Like if we were to focus more resources into the construction of new plants wouldnt they be built faster?
The latest nuclear power plant built in the US is seven years behind schedule and almost $20 billion over budget. It bankrupted Westinghouse Energy, and is slated to cost consumers more than double what comparable electricity costs because of these overruns.
And this was a plant that was using newer construction techniques like offsite assembly to reduce costs.
Were there mistakes during the build process like lowballing spending figures or building time so they are permitted to build or did they just royally fuck up some other way?
Except the plants take so long to build they won’t be ready until we’re at 2°C
It has been fifty years that “oh no they take so long to build, better never start” that by today we would have completely decarbonized energy generation if we started actually building them.
We could have also built solar collectors in orbit and beamed carbon-free electricity to Earth if we started 50 years ago.
Heck, if we funded fusion research properly there’s a good chance we’d have had that by the mid 90s
Doesn’t matter, not it’s to late so think about something else
It was too late ten years ago
It is too late today
It will be too late in ten years
It is always too late.
But weirdly it is never too late to be anti nuclear power.
It is also never to late to go full green energies and cut the useless spending such as private jets, luxury yatchs and son on
Knowing nothing about the process, can i ask, is the time it takes to build one based on current standards? Like if we were to focus more resources into the construction of new plants wouldnt they be built faster?
The latest nuclear power plant built in the US is seven years behind schedule and almost $20 billion over budget. It bankrupted Westinghouse Energy, and is slated to cost consumers more than double what comparable electricity costs because of these overruns.
And this was a plant that was using newer construction techniques like offsite assembly to reduce costs.
Looks like one holdup nowadays is the ability to source HALEU (Uranium that is 4x as enriched as the typical fuel used in current reactors).
https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/what-high-assay-low-enriched-uranium-haleu
https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/natural-resources-energy/2022-12-14/the-opening-of-terrapowers-nuclear-plant-in-kemmerer-will-be-delayed-by-two-years
It was sourceable from Russia before they invaded Ukraine.
Were there mistakes during the build process like lowballing spending figures or building time so they are permitted to build or did they just royally fuck up some other way?
It just seems to be a general issue in the industry and not specific to this plant or the US.
Flamanville-3 in France is 5 years overrun already and is projected to be operational 12 years from now. It’s budget ballooned from 3.3B to 20B euros.
Olkiluoto-3 was only delayed a year, but the budget went from 3 to 11B Euro.
Hinkley Point C project is behind and esyimates have gone from £16B to almost £30B.