More Money for Yucca Mountain Makes It Hard to Get Behind Nuclear Option

cost of nuclear waste disposal up yucca mountain tunnel nevada photo

The cost of complex engineering projects, in general, is rapidly going up with the higher cost of materials. Still, this upward revised estimate of the cost of long term rad waste management is particularly stunning, considering the talk about doubling nuclear generation capacity (presumably not accounted for in these numbers)!

The U.S. Department of Energy says it has revised upward its cost estimate of the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository from its 1983 start to closure in 2133. Officials said the new system life cycle cost estimate includes money needed to research, construct and operate Yucca Mountain for 150 years.

The new cost estimate of $79.3 billion, when updated to 2007 dollars totals $96.2 billion -- a 38-percent increase from the last published estimate in 2001 of $57.5 billion.

Via::Political Gateway.

As we pointed out earlier this year, Cost Increase Ants are Spoiling The Nuclear Picnic, making it hard for politicians to convince the American people that nuclear power is an easy way out of climate risk.

Wondering if Middle Eastern nations have a "Yucca" equivalent? Or do we have to share ours with them?

All the more stunning when you consider that the salvage value of many nuclear power components will be negative, while the salvage value of wind turbines will be positive. Can someone run a net present worth comparison per average ton of salvage please? And share it with the American people because the nuclear option is looking really expensive.

Image credit::Berkeley Lab Currents, Main Tunnel Inside Yucca Mountain

For more information on the increasing costs of nuclear power:
New Generation of Nuclear Power Plants More Expensive than ...
Could Nuclear Power Be the Answer to the Energy Crisis?
Stewart Brand and Nuclear Power
Wind Power Expansion in 2007 Beats Nuclear 10-to-1
John McCain Reveals He’s a Nuclear Power NIMBY