What is expensive in nuclear energy? Reason there is not more of nuclear reactors is not the cost, it is regulation. Regulation can be changed (it also seem to already have, recently, IIRC - starting 2024 NRC law changes by Biden admin and later by Trump admin)
Reason there is not more of nuclear reactors is not the cost, it is regulation.
The reason for regulation is that failure is not an option --- unless you're willing to accept the cost of making a big chunk of a state uninhabitable for a very long time.
How much would failure cost? The Chernobyl exclusion zone is over 1000 square miles --- about half the size of Delaware. And it is expected to remain uninhabitable for the next 20,000 years.
Also, the Russian Academy of Sciences estimates that up to 1 million people may suffer premature death as a result of radiation exposure and contamination from the event.
In the long run, renewable energy is a lot cheaper.
> Reason there is not more of nuclear reactors is not the cost, it is regulation.
You also have to staff up. France has a good pipeline of available staff, because they have a bunch of plants already.
The US doesn’t have the enough plants to keep a staffing pipeline healthy, so we can’t rapidly expand plants without poaching talent from overseas. Not too attractive to nuclear engineers in the age of mass ice deportations.
What is expensive in nuclear energy? Reason there is not more of nuclear reactors is not the cost, it is regulation. Regulation can be changed (it also seem to already have, recently, IIRC - starting 2024 NRC law changes by Biden admin and later by Trump admin)
Reason there is not more of nuclear reactors is not the cost, it is regulation.
The reason for regulation is that failure is not an option --- unless you're willing to accept the cost of making a big chunk of a state uninhabitable for a very long time.
How much would failure cost? The Chernobyl exclusion zone is over 1000 square miles --- about half the size of Delaware. And it is expected to remain uninhabitable for the next 20,000 years.
Also, the Russian Academy of Sciences estimates that up to 1 million people may suffer premature death as a result of radiation exposure and contamination from the event.
In the long run, renewable energy is a lot cheaper.
> Reason there is not more of nuclear reactors is not the cost, it is regulation.
You also have to staff up. France has a good pipeline of available staff, because they have a bunch of plants already.
The US doesn’t have the enough plants to keep a staffing pipeline healthy, so we can’t rapidly expand plants without poaching talent from overseas. Not too attractive to nuclear engineers in the age of mass ice deportations.