----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, July 09, 2001 8:25 PM
Subject: Re: Earth on Edge
> If someone figures out how to build a cost effective reactor, that person
> will make a pot of money. There is major incentive for success but so far
no
> one has figured out how to do it.
>
I have been told that the major obsticles to cost effective reactors are
political. The overhead in red tape for nuclear power is enormous, because
the anti-nuclear people are good enough at slowing things down. If there
was one design that power companies and the US government could agree on as
standard, then many power companies would be able to buy them.
I do not quote this as a fact, BTW, but as an arguement that could be
reasonable. The way to test it would be to allow plants to be built again,
and see what the costs are. I do know that people familiar with government
contracts stated that the famous $160 toilet seat was probably sold at a
loss, because of the expense of the government paperwork involved in selling
the seat.
The other part of cost effective is the price of the alternative. Not much
can compete with coal at half the price of 1980 prices (this is without
inflaction indexing, with it, its closer to a third in price), or natural
gas at $2.00 per thousand cubic feet.
Natural gas prices went up, and have now come back a bit. If they stay at
$3-$4, than nuclear becomes a lot more attractive.
Dan M.
