written 7 June, 2026
published 14 June, 2026
Energy systems have two basic elements: the hardware needed, and the energy source.
A standard nuclear reactor can produce 24 gigawatts hours of power each day. The solar powered equivalent is a 6 gigawatt array and a 20 gigawatt hour battery. Big numbers, but larger solar and battery projects already exist, and are under construction, around the world.
Hardware costs for a large nuclear reactor range between $9-$20B, and construction can take a decade. The solar and storage energy equivalent can cost $9B for the array and another $5B for the battery, in the same cost range as the reactor, while construction times can be much shorter.
The solar array takes more land than a reactor, but the land can have multiple uses. Agrivoltaic, combining an array with agriculture, benefits from the shade provided by the array. Land around a reactor must keep people away, to protect the facility against attack and to protect civilians in case of a radiation event.
The real economic difference between the two energy systems is the cost of the energy source. Solar energy is free and nuclear fuel is not.
The most economical uranium ore contains less than 0.1 percent uranium. Producing a pound of uranium generates a ton of tailings, usually left near the mine site. This slightly radioactive, toxic material, contaminates mine workers, local ground water, and areas downwind. All uncompensated costs.
Uranium is primarily two isotopes. 99 percent is relatively stable U-238, and only 0.7 percent is radioactive U-235. Reactor fuel must be enriched to 5 percent U-235. Each pound of enriched reactor fuel generates seven pounds of "depleted" uranium. There is no commercial use for this material, now stockpiled at taxpayer expense.
Large reactors hold 100 tons of enriched uranium. Because the fission process quickly degrades the economic functioning of the reactor, 25 tons are replaced each year, yet only 5 percent of the fissionable U-235 has been consumed. This "spent fuel" is extremely radioactive, lethal to life for hundreds of thousands of years. There is no safe, long-term storage for this material.
Therefore, each year, a single reactor produces 25 tons of the most long-lasting toxic material even seen on the planet, an additional 175 tons of "depleted" uranium, and 250,000 tons of toxic tailings scattered around the countryside.
Adding to the problem, our primary suppliers of enriched uranium fuel are China and Russia.
As our president kills domestic solar and pushes new nuclear construction, new domestic uranium enrichment facilities are being construction. But in the interim, they are considering reprocessing the 92,000 tons of highly radioactive "spent fuel", to recover the useful U-235, creating thousands of tons of radioactive liquids, with no means of safe disposal.
Domestic civilian reprocessing has been tried three times. The first, in West Valley, New York, opened in 1966. It was uneconomical, went bankrupt, and closed 6 years later. For 46 years, the State of New York has used public funds in the ongoing cleanup of the most toxic site in the state.
The second effort, the Midwest Fuel Recovery Plant in Tennessee, opened in 1974 and closed one day later. The site is still contaminated today. In 1977, the third effort, the Barnwell facility in South Carolina, was never even completed, because the entire operation was uneconomical.
New reactor designs are being built, which promise to be cheaper, but none are currently in operation. Some use higher temperatures, different cooling systems, and different fuels. One fuel is tri-structural isotropic (TRISO), millimeter size pebbles of reactor fuel fabricated with protective layers to prevent meltdown under high temperatures. This costs ten times more than conventional reactor fuels. Another fuel is high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), uranium enriched to 20 percent U-235 for greater power in small modular reactors. Bomb material is enriched to 90 percent.
America has 40,000 pounds of plutonium, resulting from dismantled nuclear bombs under the START treaty. This was produced at the Hanford, Washington facility, which was shut down in 1971. The cleanup there continues to this day. Plutonium is naturally radioactive. As little as 11 pounds will make a bomb. It can be mixed into fuel for high temperature reactors. But there are concerns about making plutonium a marketable commodity in the energy business.
All this is to avoid collecting the free energy from the sun. Nuclear energy is not about energy. It is about centralized control and financial power. But the world is shifting. We are the ones being left behind, going bankrupt.
