what does it cost to build a nuclear power plant?

Answer 1

It really varies quite greatly, depending on contractors involved, difficulties with the site, the cost of the fuel, governmental regulations, and so on. And the size of the plant matters too, of course!

According to one source (link 1), the cost has been as high as $5000 per kw and as low as $1300 per kw. The average U.S. nuclear power plant produces about a Gw of power (link 2), so that would suggest it would cost anywhere from 1.3 to 5 billion dollars to construct.

Keep in mind, though, that cost is not the total cost for the power. There are fuel costs, operating costs, and since the U.S. STILL has yet to produce a permanent storage site for radioactive materials, even the earliest reactors' costs are increasing as we keep spending money to move the waste around and clean up environmental damage.

The superfund site in Hanford, Washington (which is one of the oldest nuclear storage sites in the nation) for example, is estimated to cost $23 billion dollars (link 3), and some say that this amount will only keep the problems there from getting worse, not actually remove them. Some of the contaminants that have already leaked into the ground cannot be removed and will have to be contained somehow for a time longer than America has even been a nation. So there's really no telling what the ultimate costs will be.

Answer 2

Flamanville 3 (new nuclear power plant currently being built in France) is planned to cost 3.3 billion euros.

Answer 3

Difficult to answer that since there hasn't been one built in decades and materiel and labor costs today are stagering