Comment by markus_zhang
2 days ago
Thanks. One benefit about nuclear, maybe I’m overstretching a bit, is that it is a large system engineering project so hopefully it trains and retains many engineers and technicians. Maybe solar farm serves that purpose too? But somehow “nuclear” sounds more cool…
Is that a benefit or a cost? People these days have to train at their own expense, and construction trades are in something of a short supply.
I'm more thinking about the side of designing and implementing complex engineering systems instead of individual trades, but I'm just an armchair poster so don't know much.
There's a property called "learning rate", which roughly measures the extent to which doing some kind of project more makes it cheaper. Renewables have hugely benefited from this at every level, from manufacture to installation.
Nuclear, somehow, exhibits a negative learning rate: the more nuclear projects you do, the more expensive it gets. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03014...
From my experience in construction sites as an electrician… It is a race to the bottom. Cheapest subcontractor gets the job. Nobody cares about any training. And there are no engineers at all in construction sites. Overseeing engineer is simply too expensive. Obviously it shouldn’t be that way.