Nuclear Power. Good idea or bad idea?

I just wanted to know how competitive nuclear power is, but it spiraled out of control into research on the entire energy sector. Nuclear energy…good idea or bad idea? Eeeeaaaaaaa, probably a good idea to limit an overreliance on intermittent wind and solar and energy storage, like batteries, which may or may not pan out to be good enough. But, it ultimately depends on which technologies have the most positive breakthroughs and how much you trust which industry or technology to avoid fatal mistakes.

Straight Prices

First, let’s discuss the straight prices.

There are two types of nuclear plants: ones that don’t exist yet, and those that do. The biggest cost of nuclear is planning and building the damn thing. So, if we’re talking about extending the life of an already working nuclear plant, that is much cheaper than building a new one, because at this point, the building costs are already spent.

As far as measuring the total cost of electricity that takes into account the cost to build and operate a facility, there is the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). It takes the total cost divided by the amount of electricity dispatched during the plant’s lifetime. There are other measures as well, but all the fairly complete measures have the same result: nuclear is more expensive than coal, gas, solar, and wind.

The LCOE for a new nuclear plant in the US is about $151 compared to $43 for onshore wind and $41 for utility solar. LCOE often doesn’t…