Physicist MV Ramana on why nuclear power is not a clean energy panacea

The real simple explanation is that the fuel cost of gas and coal are only a minor percentage of the total cost. Much of the cost of power generation is the equipment in the facilities depreciating and requiring upkeep.

With nuclear you have costs of both the reactor and the turbines to upkeep so you have at least 2x the upkeep cost because you essentially a full coal power plant plus all the. Complexity of a nuclear boiler. The cost of power is in excess of 30c kw/hr and therefore not very competitive with other fuel sources and not even close to solar which is somewhere around 5c.

> “This wasn’t the book Ramana, a professor at the University of British Columbia, planned to write. The problems with nuclear are so “obvious”, he wagered, they don’t need to be spelled out. But with the guidance of his editor, he realised his mistake”