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NN Asks: What hurdles stand in the way of nuclear power’s global expansion?
Jake Jurewicz
Nuclear technology is mature. It provides firm power at scale with minimal externalities and has done so for decades. The core problem isn’t about the technology—it is how the plants are built. Nuclear construction has a well-documented history of cost and schedule overruns. Previous nuclear plants often spent more than twice what was first budgeted, making nuclear among the power technologies with the largest average cost overruns worldwide.
Recent projects illustrate how severe the problem can be. In South Carolina, the V.C. Summer nuclear expansion saw projected costs rise from roughly $10 billion to more than $25 billion before the project was abandoned in 2017, by which time more than $9 billion had already been spent and customers were stuck paying for a site they have yet to benefit from.
J. G. Gilligan, K. Evans, J. Jung
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 273-278
Fusion Systems Studies | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22880
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
If sufficient tritium cannot be produced and processed in tokamak blankets then at least two alternatives are possible. Tritium can be purchased; or reactors with reduced tritium (RT) content in the plasma can be designed. The latter choice may require development of magnet technology etc., but we show that the impact on the cost-of-electricity may be mild. Cost tradeoffs are compared to the market value of tritium. Adequate tritium production in fusion blankets is preferred, but we show there is some flexibility in the deployment of fusion if this is not possible.