New nuclear to be very expensive
Bob Morris @ May 16th 2008 00:42 - Category: Unfiled
The Wall Street Journal reports that new-generation nuclear power plants are going to end up costing quite a bit more than estimates. Not just a few percents, but double to quadruple, or $5 billion to $12 billion a plant.
So what’s to keep the costs from doubling again, and why were previous estimates unrealistically low?
2 Comments »
2 Responses to “New nuclear to be very expensive”
Leave a Reply
Comments subject to deletion at whim of capricious webmaster. Disagreements are ok. Flames, trolls, and right-wing attacks are not. If your comment doesn't appear immediately, then moderation is on, thus there's no need to re-send it.
(However sometimes the anti-spam programs here go awry. Email us if your comments seem to vanish into the void.)
Salamon, NM on 16 May 2008 at 10:10 am #
That the price of a new nuclear plant is to be double of estimates, is a consequence of rising commodity prices, steel for rebars, steam turbines etc, energy for cement manufacturing and transport of goods, and not the least wages, as the available qualified labour force [engeneers to nuclear technicians, etc] is very limited due to no recent construction of such palnts, the ex[perienced labour is not available.
DJ on 17 May 2008 at 4:11 pm #
In my recollection, even in the “old days” plants often cost double their estimate. I recall in partiular the Seabrook plant, which was supposed to provide cheap power for the people of New England. It ended up bankrupting the utility instead.