There is that small sentence in this report, which basically should end any discussions and disagreements about a come-back of nuclear power:
"With the price of renewables dropping precipitously, however, the project's economics have worsened."
No matter if you disregard the problem of storing nuclear waste for a couple thousand years, and disregard that no insurance company in the world will give you insurance for your project, and that from time to time you may cause parts of your country to become uninhabitable, etc etc - it simply longer matters.
You just can't beat renewables when it comes to long-term cost. Because they are... well, ...renewable.
In Germany, even with the conservative parties spreading FUD and sabotaging projects, we are now covering 50% of our power usage with renewables. Even the worst politics simply could not beat capitalism: Wind and sun provided for free by the Universe simply makes a good business case.
Over here, the biggest challenge now is that the NIMBYs are preventing new power transmission lines to get built to be able to distribute from where there is most renewable energy, the north, to where the biggest power consumption is, in the south. If we would quickly build this grid, we could be at 100% renewables in a couple of years.
In Germany, Bavaria is NIMBY heaven. They refuse to invest into the grid, wanted to keep running nuclear, but absolutely refused to have nuclear waste storage in their state. Instead they pushed for the states that have 0% nuclear to take their waste.
Also, in Germany the power market is regulated that the price must be the same in all parts of Germany. This is why the north is now finally starting to raise their voices because they are subsidizing the expensive nuclear from Bavaria. If we'd just cut the grid and disconnect Bavaria, our energy prices would instantly drop by 30%.
Given all that, the tendency in the US of "We want to burn more coal! We want to burn more oil! We want to burn everything we have (with the exception of our forests, they are burning down on their own now)!" from a distance really starts to look silly. Where does that strong desire of having to BURN stuff come from? ;)
"With the price of renewables dropping precipitously, however, the project's economics have worsened."
No matter if you disregard the problem of storing nuclear waste for a couple thousand years, and disregard that no insurance company in the world will give you insurance for your project, and that from time to time you may cause parts of your country to become uninhabitable, etc etc - it simply longer matters.
You just can't beat renewables when it comes to long-term cost. Because they are... well, ...renewable.
In Germany, even with the conservative parties spreading FUD and sabotaging projects, we are now covering 50% of our power usage with renewables. Even the worst politics simply could not beat capitalism: Wind and sun provided for free by the Universe simply makes a good business case.
Over here, the biggest challenge now is that the NIMBYs are preventing new power transmission lines to get built to be able to distribute from where there is most renewable energy, the north, to where the biggest power consumption is, in the south. If we would quickly build this grid, we could be at 100% renewables in a couple of years.
In Germany, Bavaria is NIMBY heaven. They refuse to invest into the grid, wanted to keep running nuclear, but absolutely refused to have nuclear waste storage in their state. Instead they pushed for the states that have 0% nuclear to take their waste.
Also, in Germany the power market is regulated that the price must be the same in all parts of Germany. This is why the north is now finally starting to raise their voices because they are subsidizing the expensive nuclear from Bavaria. If we'd just cut the grid and disconnect Bavaria, our energy prices would instantly drop by 30%.
Given all that, the tendency in the US of "We want to burn more coal! We want to burn more oil! We want to burn everything we have (with the exception of our forests, they are burning down on their own now)!" from a distance really starts to look silly. Where does that strong desire of having to BURN stuff come from? ;)