GE CEO says nuclear power hard to justify financially compared to other sources

[JohnyCanuck]

In a Financial Times interview this week, Jeff Immelt, chief executive of GE, said nuclear power was “really hard” to defend financially, when compared both with gas-fired generation and certain renewables. “At some point, really, economics rule,” he added. Mr Immelt is not some disinterested bystander. GE, one of the pioneers of civil nuclear power in the 1950s, still produces reactors through a joint venture with Hitachi of Japan.


Mr Immelt is right that worsening economics are curbing the so-called nuclear renaissance. Since Japan’s Fukushima disaster last year, understandably tighter safety regulations have increased the costs of reactor construction. Meanwhile, those of rival technologies are lower than expected. Gas-fired generation has become cheaper as shale gas has come on stream. Meanwhile, new technology has cut solar panel prices.

True, the economic pressures are not everywhere the same. The picture in the US, for instance, is far bleaker for reactor-makers, because shale-gas exploitation has gone further. In Europe, the differential is narrower.

The snag is that the nuclear industry finds it very difficult to respond by cutting its own costs. Tight regulation has crimped competition and innovation – in spite of generous government-funded research programmes.

Full article (free registration required):
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0bc5c4be-dd7c-11e1-8be2-00144feab49a.html#ixzz22WY446X6

[AndyTiedye]

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