Nuclear power has been in the news recently with the bankruptcy announcement of the Westinghouse Electricity Company threatening the limited number of nuclear reactors currently under development in the United States. This post will examine a few of the trends in the U.S. nuclear industry to help explain how we got to this point and where the industry may be heading.
Noticias recientes sobre la quiebra financiera de la Compañia de Electricidad Westinghouse, coloca el tema de la generación por energía nuclear, y la amenaza de desarrollo del limitado número de reactores en proceso de estudio. El siguiente artículo examina algunas tendencias en la industria del desarrollo nuclear, cómo llegamos a este estado y hacia donde podría estar encaminandose la industria en USA.
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Nuclear power plants have very high up-front capital costs (a study by the University of Chicago estimates that building a large nuclear reactor costs about $11.7 billion dollars, as compared to $3–$5.5 billion for a small reactor, $2.4 billion for a coal plant, and $1.1 billion for a natural gas-fueled plant), although once built the electricity generated has a relatively low marginal cost per watt-hour.
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