Ik ben niet tegen, maar ook niet voor kernenergie — maar laten we samen eerst eens gaan rekenen

Analytical blog post by Ir. Wouter de Heij (Food4Innovations, August 2018) presenting a quantitative assessment of what nuclear energy would mean for the Dutch electricity system.

Drawing on IAEA data, De Heij notes 448 operational reactors worldwide (January 2018) with a combined capacity of 392 GW, supplying approximately 10% of global electricity. He estimates that covering the Netherlands’ current electricity demand of roughly 120 TWh per year would require approximately 10 reactors of 1.5 GW capacity, at a total investment of around €45 billion. If electricity demand doubles through electrification of transport and heating, 20 to 30 mid-sized plants would be required.

Operating costs for nuclear are cited at 3–11 eurocents per kWh, compared to a projected 2.5 cents/kWh for solar and 4–5 cents/kWh for wind. Capital costs at the time were estimated at €2–3 million per MW for nuclear, versus €0.7 million/MW for gas and €1–1.5 million/MW for wind and solar. The article concludes that supplying all global energy from nuclear would require approximately 8,000 additional reactors worldwide.