Why $16 per watt Nuclear Power Can’t Compete With $1 per watt Carbon Free Wind and Solar.

The Nuclear Reactor Next Door Series

Stanford professor of civil and environmental engineering professor of civil and environmental energy Mark Jacobson directs the university’s Atmosphere/Energy Program.

He says the cost of nuclear power from America’s two most recently opened plants in Georgia is $16 per watt. “That does not compare favorably with onshore wind and solar which can be as low as $1 per watt."

One of the world’s leading climate experts, Dr. Jacobson does not see a future for nuclear power.

He points out that nuclear power plants can take nine to 15 years for construction, and 17 to 22 years overall from planning to operation in the U.S. and Europe, and 12 to 22 years worldwide. Georgia’s new Vogtle plants were finished seven years late and $17 billion over budget. New wind and solar facilities take one to three years to complete.

"The clean nuclear power argument from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy is nonsense,” says Jacobson. “Mined uranium does not show up in perfect form. It must be refined, which takes a lot of energy and causes pollution. Nuclear reactors are belching huge amounts of water vapor and heat, contributing to local and global warming. Evaporated water from the giant steam generators is a greenhouse gas."

“New nuclear power plants cost 2.3 to 7.4 times those of onshore wind or utility solar PV per watt, take five to 17 years longer between planning and operation, and produce nine to 37 times the emissions per watt as wind.”