Nuclear Power Learning and Deployment Rates; Disruption and Global Benefits Forgone

A study by economist Peter Lang found that during the 1950s and '60s the cost of nuclear plants was decreasing by about 25 percent for each doubling of capacity. And then the trend utterly reversed. He calculates that, had the earlier trend continued, the price of power would have fallen to 10 percent of what it is in 2020, and "the extra nuclear generation could have exceeded the extra generation from coal by year 2000 (assuming electricity demand did not change)." And that's not all. "If the extra nuclear generated electricity had substituted for coal and gas generation, about 9.5 million deaths and 174 Gt CO2 may have been avoided."

• p. 13 (MDPI, 2017)