How much does it cost to build a nuclear power station?
There are few recent examples to draw on, but a new plant being built in Finland gives some indications. The Olkiluoto project is Western Europe’s first new reactor in a decade and is expected to cost about 2.25bn ($4.5bn), but there have been serious delays there. Other analysts put the cost of a plant at 1.5bn. How does that compare with other types of power station? Gas and coal-fired power stations are much cheaper to build. RWE Npower is planning a gas-fired power station in the UK for 800m. The controversial scheme for a coal-fired power station in Kent is expected to cost about 1bn. So is nuclear power good value for money? Nuclear power stations are extremely expensive to build. But if several stations are commissioned at once, then the cost should go down because of economies of scale – a sort of bulk discount. But they will still be more expensive to build than conventional power stations. And there are fears that investment in nuclear will detract from other sources of energ
