What is the main reason why fewer nuclear power plants are being built today compared to 40 years ago?

Answer 1

Because people are afraid of them. The industry got a bad eye when Three Mile Island occurred, and then Chernobyl occurred. It does not help that there is political opposition to the construction of high level waste storage facilities, and it does not help that there are anti-nuclear folks out there that will stop at nothing, including lying and spreading disinformation, to oppose the plants.

Unfortunately, alternative sources of energy are not ready, nor will they be ready in the near term, to take on the growing energy demand of the world. At this point, the only viable new source of power for the short and medium term is nuclear. We need to find a way to look at the big picture. Certainly, there are risks to nuclear power but, put in proper perspective, they are less than any of the alternatives.

Answer 2

Well power plants produce energy okay,but while their making that energy,the plant is putting gases that are very bad into the atmosphere,hurting our environment.But I wouldn't say there are less.I hope this helps you out.

Answer 3

"they wont build new nuclear plants because if it gets hacked into the u.s. could go under and someone could come on top of us"

I'm not sure exactly what they meant above, but I will offer this explanation. Nuclear reactors are significantly more expensive to build in comparison to nearly every alternative electricity generating source. Now, it may seem odd that an expensive technology with nearly the lowest operating and generating costs on the market wouldn't be embraced, but consider a company faced with a daunting multi-billion dollar project (building a nuclear plant) in a heavily regulated field (and for good reasons) with a 10 year lead time on investment return or choosing a well established less regulated technology with the lowest operating and generating cost with a much shorter lead time on investment return like coal fired power plants. All in all, economics becomes the driving factor behind the limitations on nuclear power expansion.

Lately, however, coal fired technology has been under public scrutiny because of issues related to acid rain, global warming, and general pollution concerns. These issues have renewed interest in nuclear technologies especially with politicians discussing issues like carbon credits or cap and trade program where nuclear facilities that do not generate carbon dioxide could offset operations costs by selling their carbon credits to carbon dioxide generators like coal fired plants. A more volatile political environment relative to the coal industry has lead to increases in costs for coal plants and made it more difficult to cite new plants. This political adjustment coupled with new advancements in a 30 year old technology, fracking, have lead to increased use of natural gas, a much cleaner, more easily used, and efficient energy fuel source. Combined cycle gas turbine plants are nearly 60% efficient at converting the chemical energy in natural gas to electricity while nuclear and coal fired plants are traditionally in the 28-40% efficiency range with most around 30-35% (limited by the laws of thermodynamics).

As we progress into the future, we'll be faced with taking a firmer stance on global warming initiatives at a cost. Changing the world electrical sources to limit environmental changes will be a major infrastructure investment that someone will have to pay for. We as consumers, in some ways, govern the economics of the various energy sources through political pressure on our representatives and on what we buy. If you have concerns about affecting these changes, then the outcome relies on whether you can afford the adjustment and whether others can...

Answer 4

The main reasons fewer nuclear power plants are being built today compared to 40 years ago are high construction costs, concerns over safety and security, regulatory challenges, and competition from other forms of energy like renewables. Additionally, public opinion and social acceptance of nuclear power have also played a role in its declining growth.

Answer 5

Nobody has come up with a way of making controlled fusion.

Answer 6

Anti-nuclear panic.