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According to a new report from the generally pro-nuclear organization, Climate Progress, nuclear power is just about the most expensive carbon-free option on the table today. In response, the organization is considering completely eliminating nuclear power from it's plan to make the world's power generation carbon free.
Nuclear power plants being built today are required to have strict safety measures as well as waste disposal plans that make them significantly more expensive than previous nuclear power plants. The result is that prices for nuclear power have increased, currently at around 30 cents per kW/h. Or, roughly three times the cost of today's average utilities, ten times the cost of reducing power use through efficiency and double the cost of solar thermal.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
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I can't guess how you got the idea that Climate Progress was generally pro-nuclear. From what I can see, it just echoes whatever Greenpeace says, just with more text and fewer bumper-sticker slogans.
ReplyDeleteThe article you reference was, like all anti-nuclear polemics, written only to justify the author's preconception. If you read the comments, you'll see that the study depended on false assumptions and distorted analysis. Its main shortcoming, though, is that it doesn't compare nuclear costs with the costs of alternative energy sources. The author responded by saying the comparison was "simply beyond the scope of this paper."
Comparative data show that the cost of alternatives have risen in parallel to nuclear cost and for exactly the same reason.
Misinformation like this can only do harm. The world needs real information to help in making tough decisions, not political propaganda.