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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.
D. P. Dionizio, P. L. C. Saldanha, P. F. Frutuoso E Melo, C. M. F. Lapa
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 3 | March 2024 | Pages 436-456
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2229182
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This work investigates the availability of the power system of a Konvoi nuclear power plant against a station blackout scenario considering the acquisition of emergency mobile diesel generators (DGMs) as an additional alternative for power supply to the plant, which is one of the post-Fukushima initiatives planned to improve safety. The study was carried out by modeling the systems involved using Markov chains. The simulation carried out through the MATLAB program showed a considerable gain in the availability of the emergency electric system when the group of DGMs is added to the set.
