Vogtle Unit 3 Goes On Line

..."Finally, despite new nuclear reactor designs being safer, reactor design approval times still take several years, and these delays cost money and discourage new plants from ever being built. Regulators appear to regulate based on the risk of disaster from the 1970s, not 2017. AAF recommends a focus on one of the most significant regulatory liabilities of nuclear power plants: nuclear waste management. Mitigating the pecuniary and risk exposure of waste management, along with aligning regulation with the (low) risk generated by nuclear facilities will help to make the power source competitive once again.

INTRODUCTION

Last year, AAF found that the average nuclear power plant must pay at least $8.6 million in regulatory costs and $22 million in fees to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). That research focused exclusively on the administrative costs of producing nuclear power, mainly the paperwork and fees required by NRC, in addition to security support.

Based on a review of publicly reported 10-K data, AAF finds the average nuclear reactor must navigate $219 million in regulatory liabilities ($60 million annually per plant), with many of the newest burdens arising in 2012. In that year, operation and maintenance costs, and fuel liabilities spiked dramatically. Using the Mercatus Center’s RegData tool, AAF found the number of regulatory restrictions from NRC correlates almost perfectly with rising operation and maintenance costs (as reported by the Energy Information Administration)."...

https://www.americanactionforum.org/research/putting-nuclear-regulatory-costs-context/

Besides regulatory costs, practically every nuclear power plant proposal in the U. S. faces costly litigation as anti-nuclear activists challenge every regulatory filing as "inadequate" in some way. These organizations are usually well-funded by billionaire leftists with an agenda that does not often match that of the general public. Most of the suits ultimately are dismissed when the challenged forms are re-filed, but in the meantime, injunctions, additional regulatory delays stemming from resubmissions, plus legal fees, add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of the plant. There really should be a "loser pays" requirement on these suits.

Mining is another industry with the same problem, especially uranium mining.

There is no question that nuclear power is the preferred power source of our immediate future.