Nuclear has never been particularly affordable. It's always been more expensive than coal or gas, even in France in the 70s-80s and China in the 2010s.
Mainly because regulators got scared and started adding line items for bogus safety reasons (like expecting to see background radiation levels far below those seen at coal plants due to the fly ash).
> isn't economically viable
That is not an intrinsic truth. We have chosen to make it economically unviable.
Most things get cheaper to build with time. Nuclear is an outlier where it used to be affordable and now it isn’t. That’s insane.
Nuclear has never been particularly affordable. It's always been more expensive than coal or gas, even in France in the 70s-80s and China in the 2010s.
Here's how much it cost to build nuclear in France during its golden age: https://ifp.org/nuclear-power-plant-construction-costs. Adjust for inflation and draw your own conclusion.
China's nuclear costs are more opaque, but are estimated at $3B per GW. Again, not competitive.
Ontario produces a majority of its electric power from nuclear (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Canada) and manages to sell it at competitive rates (https://www.oeb.ca/consumer-information-and-protection/elect...) similar to those in Alberta (https://ucahelps.alberta.ca/your-utilities/rates/historic-ra...) where electricity comes mainly from natural gas after a recent transition from mostly coal. A 2021 report cited at https://www.cns-snc.ca/learn-nuclear/basics-of-nuclear/how-m... finds that nuclear power in Ontario was more cost effective than everything else except hydroelectric power (granted, solar has become much cheaper in just the last few years). And this is in spite of multiple reactor shutdowns.
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why is it different like that?
Mainly because regulators got scared and started adding line items for bogus safety reasons (like expecting to see background radiation levels far below those seen at coal plants due to the fly ash).
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Tell that to China
China has been building them at a relatively lukewarm pace compared to its solar and wind expansion
> China installed 1GW of nuclear last year, compared to 300GW of solar and wind, Mr Buckley said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-07-16/chinas-renewa...