Wow, I didn't realize the Lovering turnkey prices weren't the contract but landed costs. I occasionally see the comment that they were taking losses to compete for market share. That is spectacular
I would not be quite so literal. Part of the increase is the inexplicable decision to downscale to the APR1000, and part is localization. But Doosan has owned Skoda for some time and the Czechs have their heads screwed on straight by European standards, so these factors can't explain more than $1000/kW of the difference.
On the other hand, the UAE is a very expensive place to build a plant. Horrible water temps and lots of baksheesh. The starting point should be the domestic cost of an APR1400 which is less than $3000/kW.
Jack - Great article. You’ve clearly stated some of the actions that led to the outcome of ever rising prices for nuclear power plants and the power they produce.
But the nuclear plant vendors were not the only beneficiaries of rising nuclear plant scope and prices.
The “coal boys”, led Joseph Moody and the National Coal Policy Conference (NCPC) that he directed, worked tirelessly from the late 1950s and into the 1970s to defend their shrining markets from the growing competitive threat from nuclear fission energy.
They did whatever they could think of to damage nuclear’s public standing and to add costs to the enterprise. They had long experience with the costs of adding pollution controls and other regulatory burdens so they figured out ways to push regulators to impose similarly structured burdens on nuclear, even if its “pollution” and “environmental impacts” were far less visible and, in some cases, mostly a figment of creative imagination.
Wow, I didn't realize the Lovering turnkey prices weren't the contract but landed costs. I occasionally see the comment that they were taking losses to compete for market share. That is spectacular
The COST OF REGULATORY UNCERTAINTY is $5300/kW
ADDED to the LOWER cost of the nuclear power plant
in your Dukovany II example.
Robert,
I would not be quite so literal. Part of the increase is the inexplicable decision to downscale to the APR1000, and part is localization. But Doosan has owned Skoda for some time and the Czechs have their heads screwed on straight by European standards, so these factors can't explain more than $1000/kW of the difference.
On the other hand, the UAE is a very expensive place to build a plant. Horrible water temps and lots of baksheesh. The starting point should be the domestic cost of an APR1400 which is less than $3000/kW.
Jack - Great article. You’ve clearly stated some of the actions that led to the outcome of ever rising prices for nuclear power plants and the power they produce.
But the nuclear plant vendors were not the only beneficiaries of rising nuclear plant scope and prices.
The “coal boys”, led Joseph Moody and the National Coal Policy Conference (NCPC) that he directed, worked tirelessly from the late 1950s and into the 1970s to defend their shrining markets from the growing competitive threat from nuclear fission energy.
They did whatever they could think of to damage nuclear’s public standing and to add costs to the enterprise. They had long experience with the costs of adding pollution controls and other regulatory burdens so they figured out ways to push regulators to impose similarly structured burdens on nuclear, even if its “pollution” and “environmental impacts” were far less visible and, in some cases, mostly a figment of creative imagination.
Here’s an old post with additional details.
https://atomicinsights.com/smoking-gun-antinuclear-talking-points-coined-coal-interests/