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Why hold wind to a higher standard than a nuclear plant? A nuclear plant typically has 95% uptime. Wind/PV/storage can hit 95% or 99% or 99.9% a lot cheaper than Hinkley can hit 95%.


> Wind/PV/storage can hit 95% or 99% or 99.9% a lot cheaper than Hinkley can hit 95%.

I think the geography of the UK helps with offshore wind getting good capacity factors, but the general averages aren't great, often peaking at ~40%:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacity_factor

As someone who lives in Ontario, Canada, I can see in real-time how wind goes up and down, while nuclear just keeps chugging along:

* https://www.ieso.ca/power-data § Supply

And nuclear is cheaper (CA$0.101/kWh) than wind ($0.147) or solar ($0.474); see Table 2:

* https://www.oeb.ca/sites/default/files/rpp-price-report-2023...

Of course our infrastructure and/or geography may not be as well-suited for wind.


Nuclear is only 10 cents / kWh after the OEB has off-loaded all the costs for building and decommissioning to the federal and provincial governments.


> decommissioning

Bruce Power is responsible for decommissioning costs:

> Bruce Power receives a fixed price for its electricity generation that is inclusive of all its current costs and funding of future decommissioning liabilities in the Bruce Facility. As previously noted, the average price over the life of the contract was estimated by the IESO to be $77/ MWh (in 2015$).

* https://www.brucepower.com/who-we-are/delivering-transparenc...

As is OPG (Pickering, Darlington):

> From the earliest days of each project, OPG is required by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) to have a Financial Guarantee in place to ensure it can cover the costs of the eventual decommissioning of its nuclear facilities.

* https://www.opg.com/power-generation/our-power/nuclear/decom...

Federally, the generation companies are also responsible for handling waste:

> The Act required Canadian electricity generating companies which produce used nuclear fuel to establish a waste management organization to provide recommendations to the Government of Canada on the long-term management of used nuclear fuel. The legislation also required the waste owners to establish segregated trust funds to finance the long-term management of the used fuel. The Act further authorized the Government of Canada to decide on the approach. The government's choice will then be implemented by the NWMO, subject to all of the necessary regulatory approvals.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Waste_Management_Organ...

Do you have references that say otherwise?


How many of their plants have already been fully decommissioned? What's going to happen when the reserved funds run out halfway through the decommissioning process? Who's going to pay for it when Bruce Power goes bankrupt? Are they going to claw back dividends decades after payout, or will the taxpayers end up with the bill?


You claimed "OEB has off-loaded all the costs for building and decommissioning". I gave references that contradict that and asked for references to support your statement.

You have not provided any, and have changed the subject. Do you retract your claim?

Or are you sticking with your claim and moving the goalposts as well?


I'm not holding wind to a higher standard - I'd rather have two pretty reliable sources whose downtime is uncorrelated.




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