$5.6B actually sounds like a good deal. It outputs 2GW+ of power. While solar is definitely cheaper for 2GW of power, you still need batteries for when the sun is down. So you probably need approximately 30GWh of batteries to just replace this one power plant. The batteries alone would cost nearly $7B of grid-scale batteries that must be replaced every 20 years.

Ignoring the fact that the nuclear plant already exists, this still seems like the right way to go mostly because it's impossible to build this nuclear power plant for $16B in the US anymore (or so it seems).

▲ boznz an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Due to increased regulation etc you cannot just translate 1985 $, £ or Euro to a 2026 one. There is an actual example in the UK Hinkley Point C current estimate $43b, (£35b) where as sizewell B commissioned in 1987 was $3.2b billion (£2b) or about $7b in todays $. This is probably the worst example but makes the point.

▲ saltyoldman 21 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

7B for the first set of batts.

Then 7B in 2046 money which is probably $15 today.

▲ throwaway2037 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

    > $5.6B actually sounds like a good deal. It outputs 2GW+ of power.

I don't understand. Are you talking about 1985 dollars of 2026 dollars?

After some research, I learned that thermal powerplants (coal/gas/oil) completed in 1985 cost about 0.8B to 1.2B USD per GW. 5.6B USD in 1985 for 2GW sounds like a terrible price -- at least twice the cost.

	▲	connicpu an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Nuclear is high capex low opex. It needs such a miniscule amount of fissile material per year, whereas purchasing coal is an eternal ongoing cost. Just to put some numbers on it, a 1GW conventional reactor consumes about 25 tonnes of enriched uranium per year, while a 1GW coal plant goes through 3.3 million tonnes of coal.
	▲	Chico75 an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Price is not the only factor, paying double for energy that does not contribute to global warming and other health issues seems more reasonable.

▲ hnav an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

assuming 300 days/year, 1c/kwh and ignoring opex that's $150m worth of electricity per year.