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Comment by legulere | Hacker News Reader

Have you not seen the catastrophe that new nuclear construction is?

Not sure why it's getting downvoted.

The Olkiluoto 3 plant in Finland was planned to open in 2011. It's still not running, massive cost overrun. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olkiluoto_Nuclear_Power_Plant

Flamanville in France was planned to open in 2012. Still not running, massive cost overrun. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamanville_Nuclear_Power_Plan...

Hinkley C in UK only could start construction because it got promised massive overpriced payment for electricity by the government. Speculation is this largely happens to cross-subsidize UKs nuclear weapons program.

This is all in countries that are politically relatively pro nuclear, this isn't because environmentalists are blocking the efforts.

Those articles indicate they are both partially running and both outputting more power right now individually, in their partially operational state, than any of the largest solar plants on earth. They also beat all wind plants except the largest.

But solar can be much more decentralised than nuclear. So comparing single plants by power doesn't seem fair to me, at the very least you also need to compare costs.

Decentralized solar also requires extensive upgrades and smarter and more robust electrical network. Electrical storage facilities will also still be centralized and you will have even more losses from bringing power in from long distances, and then releasing it back over similar distances again. A central plant is only one way, instead of both ways.

Taishan 1 is the same type and opened on time.

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