12 Jan 2024. https://www.msn.com/de-de/finanzen/top-stories/nuklear-startup-kriselt-gewaltig-der-traum-der-hosentaschen-akws-ist-vorerst-geplatzt/ar-AA1mOfU4?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=LCTS&cvid=710c6ccafd854d61f89c5332a6c47c67&ei=127 „Miniature reactors were to become a fundamental part of the nuclear renaissance. But the most important manufacturer is in huge crisis. For investors, the bet on company NuScale Power turned out to be a flop.
The energy industry seems to be sure of one thing: the future is decentralized. This applies to the in-house solar roof - including battery storage - as well as to the most advanced form of energy generation, nuclear power. Instead of huge reactors, compact, modular reactors will provide the necessary energy in the future. Cheap and CO2-free.”… “Originally, electricity from the mini-reactors was supposed to cost $58 per megawatt hour. However, due to higher construction costs, the price climbed to USD 89/megawatt hour, a jump of an enormous 53 percent, according to an analysis by the energy industry think tank IEEFA last January. The price would actually be almost 120 USD/megawatt hour”…
In Germany, a megawatt hour in wholesale electricity currently costs around 100 euros, or just over 109 US dollars, as data from the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) shows. In the USA the prices are significantly lower. According to the energy agency EIA, a megawatt hour of electricity was at the end of December for prices between 27 and 54 dollars - depending on the regional distributor.”… “Reactors are expensive, and in almost every case more expensive than planned.”… “ Cost explosions in nuclear projects are the rule, not the exception. Last year, for example, two new units at the Vogtle nuclear power plant in the US state of Georgia finally went into operation - seven years later than planned, and with construction costs of over 31 billion dollars, more than twice as expensive as planned.”…”In addition, a question in the nuclear power renaissance often remains unanswered: Who should ultimately build all the Nuclear power plants, whether large or small? After the COP 28 climate conference” – in 2023 – “energy consultant Mycle Schneider criticized "N-tv" that many countries had declared that they wanted to build more reactors, but the fragmented industry did not have the capacity at all…. For example, EDF is already overwhelmed with the maintenance of the reactor fleet in the home country of France. …The performance of the French power plant park was an absolute disaster last year. There were an average of 152 standstill days per reactor”...”In December (2023), China General Nuclear Power (CGN) said goodbye to the Hinkley Point C project. The company was actually supposed to be a junior partner of the French utility giant EDF and support the now $41 billion expansion of the nuclear power plant near the British town of Bridgwater. But a contract clause allowed the Chinese to stop financing if the costs became too high.”
According to a document from EWS Schönau (Elektrizitätswerke Schönau Vertriebs GmbH (EWS), the share of nuclear power in 2022 was still 6.6 percent of the German electricity mix.
Nuclear power is only so cheap in Europe because it is subsidized with large amounts of tax money. The taxpayer bears the vast majority of costs. This doesn't even include the costs of disposing of and safely sealing the nuclear waste for at least 100,000 years or so. The electricity companies are allowed to make profits from the nuclear reactors and the taxpayer bears the costs.
01 Sept 2022. Already in 2010 German Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND), Landesverband Schleswig-Holstein e.V. wrote in their website “Electricity from renewable sources is already cheaper than nuclear power on the electricity exchange today. In addition, the price of electricity does not reflect the true cost of nuclear power. In a study, the Forum Ecological-Social Market Economy compared the real costs for society as a whole of different forms of energy. A kilowatt hour (kWh) of nuclear power costs up to 42.2 cents. Wind energy, on the other hand, is only around 8.1 cents/kWh.”
Please see also https://green-planet-energy.de/fileadmin/docs/publikationen/Studien/Greenpeace_Energy_Was_Strom_wirklich_kostet_2015.pdf. The booklet mentions the comparatively high costs of nuclear power, please see page 15 and 16.
