Despite Climate Worry, Europe Turns to Coal

[Winner]

Yeah, go figure, I'm talking about the free market not subsidizing nuclear power.

What I am saying is that you might very well support more expensive forms of electricity to keep the poorest (the Roma) in your country ever being able to have access to it. Kind of like global warming nuts telling the developing world that they can't use coal or oil.

They have an access to it. The reason why they're poor is definitely not hidden in high prices of electricity...

Uhm, let me explain it again. If it was profitable and competetive in a free market, investment cost wouldn't matter. Private investors would invest more because they could make their profit in the long run. The result would be that they are making a profit.

This isn't the case. Nuclear power is heavily subsidized. It's the only way it gets of the ground. It's the only way people will even open a power plant because they wouldn't make any money if they weren't subsidized.

You're so very wrong it's actually amazing.

Many huge projects (and nuclear power plants are a very complicated thing) have a trouble getting all the money needed to get them running. Companies are wary of making this kind of investment, especially when it comes to nuclear energy.

It's not because it would be insanely expensive as you say, but because there is a lot of uncertainty. The government usually requires a lot of conditions to be met and there is always the danger that some eco-idiots will manage to stop the project (like they did in Austria).

Face it, nuclear energy is too controversial to be left purely in the hands of free market. That's why the state has to be included. You can rant about how it distorts free market, but you have no proof whatsoever that it makes the electricity prices higher.

A detailed study of energy economics in Finland published in mid 2000 showed that nuclear energy would be the least-cost option for new generating capacity. The study compared nuclear, coal, gas turbine combined cycle and peat. Nuclear has very much higher capital costs than the others --EUR 1749/kW including initial fuel load, which is about three times the cost of the gas plant. But its fuel costs are much lower, and so at capacity factors above 64% it is the cheapest option.

 

[Merkinball]

Come back and talk to me when you have a basic, if not fundamental grasp, of what overhead costs are...

And again, unfortunately all those government regulations, for safety, are a part of the cost.

You can't just pretend they don't exist in order to justify the cost effectiveness of it. Nor can you ignore the tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, that are needed in government subsidies just to construct one of them.