Is Nuclear Power Safe?

Nuclear power has the potential to be extremely dangerous and cause huge health problems over tens if not hundreds of years.

75% of the nuclear power plants in the USA are leaking although it is claimed none into the environment.

But even if nuclear power plants did not have any operational issues or explosions the cost of nuclear power rules them out as a sustainable source of electricity. The cost per MWH is far higher than any other form of electricity when you take into consideration their construction and decommissioning costs.

Hinkley Point C power station in the UK is a prime example.

All the costs that could potentially get blown out of all proportion will be covered by the government.

In short, all the upside is with EDF and all the downside is covered by the UK taxpayer from decades after the plant stops producing power.

Nuclear power is not profitable, it costs more to run a power station than the value of electricity it makes. On a pure business basis nuclear power makes absolutely no sense.

Without taxpayers being on the hook for cost overruns they would never be built.

The decommissioning period of a power station could be 50 years or more. It is simply not possible to understand the costs that could come, in that long a period of time, no company would want to obligate itself for that period of time.

And if anything did go wrong, arguably no power company would be able to survive the litigation and compensation it would have to pay to victims should anything go wrong.

If the person doing something is not able to take responsibility for the thing they are doing then they should not do it and the same goes for businesses and especially businesses which are involved in unclear power production.

Here is an excellent article detailing all the problems with nuclear power.

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