Nuclear power's real chain reaction: spiralling costs

[kristopher]

Nuclear power's real chain reaction: spiralling costs
The new delays and bumper cost overruns of EDF's new reactor in France make it very hard to believe that nuclear power can fulfil the promises its supporters make

Time is money, they say, and the new nuclear power plant being built by EDF at Flamanville in France is now at least four years behind time and €2.7bn over budget. EDF blamed the delay on two fatal construction accidents and dealing with safety analyses prompted by the Fukushima disaster.

So what does the news mean for the role for nuclear power in delivering the low-carbon electricity essential to tackling climate change? The three 'Cs' of energy policy are carbon, cost and continuity of supply, and Wednesday's announcement by EDF is relevant to the latter two.

The Flamanville fiasco shows once again that new nuclear power plants are not being built on time or on budget, diminishing the arguments in favour of them.

The only other new nuclear plant being built in Europe is at Olkiluoto in Finland. Areva, like EDF a state-controlled French company, told me this will be connected to the grid no sooner than 2013 and costs are now estimated at €5.6bn. That is four years late and €2.6bn over budget.

I wanted to understand better...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2011/jul/22/nuclear-power-cost-delay-edf

I guess this takes the "it's the antinukes fault" claim off the table, doesn't it?

Cost escalations and extremely long, uncertain time to build are characteristics inherent to the complexity of the technology.