Guardian: New generation of nuclear reactors could consume radioactive waste as fuel

[DCKit]

5. They'll never build these reactors as designed, because companies like Bechtel...

make many more hundreds of millions of dollars off of every reactor they customize to the site. How else do you think they get to cost over-runs of 2-4x of the initial projected cost?

A stepfather of mine worked on a nuclear project once, and the incompetence was amazing. He came home one evening and told up the project had been put on hold for several weeks because some architect had decided he could run some critical piping through the reactor vessel (and the installation of those pipes had already begun). He worked on that project for a total of about five years, until it was finally decided to scrap it. They saved an estimated $450 million dollars by turning that plant into a gas-fired plant, instead.

Seven billion dollars (the last I heard of any reactor costing) might not buy enough solar panels to generate the same level of power as a nuclear power plant, but I'd be a lot happier living next door.