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First Nuclear Power Plant Planned In Jordan
jones_supa writes Jordan has signed an agreement with Russia's state-owned nuclear power giant Rosatom, that sets the legal basis for building the kingdom's first nuclear power plant with a total capacity of 2,000 MW. The agreement is worth $10 billion and it envisages the construction of a two-unit power plant at Amra in the north of the kingdom by 2022. The deal provides for a feasibility study, site evaluation process and an environmental impact assessment. Currently Jordan imports nearly 98% of its energy from oil products and crude and is struggling to meet electricity demand, which is growing by more than 7% annually due to a rising population and industrial expansion. The kingdom hopes that eventually nuclear power could provide almost 40% of its total electricity generating capacity.
Could someone fill me in on the economics of nuclear power generation? I'd like to know what the usual payback period for a plant is, and how much it costs to operate a plant over that period.
Just doing some napkin figuring here, if the plant ran 24/7 at full capacity for a 20 year payback period, and assuming that operational costs are about the same as initial construction costs (i.e. using the $10 billion number from the summary, so $20 billion for construction and operation), that gives me a figure of about 5.7 cents per kilowatt-hour. Obviously the plant wouldn't run at full capacity for 20 years straight, but that does put something of a lower bound on the price of power generation, and it seems like a reasonable number given US electricity prices.
I'd also like to know how this compares to hydro, gas, coal, solar, wind, tidal, and any other generation method currently in use.
Cyrano de Maniac
There is not a lot of water available anywhere in Jordan, and precious little in Zarqa Governate (where Amra is located,) and it is far, far away from Aqaba. We do need power, we need water too (the aquifers are running out rapidly.) We could also do with more coastline (in 1965, Jordan traded some desert for more coast from the Saudis.)
Personally, I need tourists who want to go diving (some excellent dives right here 15km south of town, and I happen to be an instructor) and talk tech/programming/music/movies etc. Oh, yes, there are 'problems' in the neighbouring states, but they don't impact here, except that the tourism trade has slowed down.
Because the US didn't stage a coup in Jordan in 1953, overthrowing its democratically elected government and installing a right-wing bloody dictator so they could steal their oil. Nope, the US did that to Iran.
The US is stil pissed off that after the revolution against their installed puppet dictator that they lost access to all that oil.
Doesn't help that Israeli Jews are both so influential in the US and so irrationally hateful toward Iran. They have forgotten that without the Iranian king Cyrus that there would not be a Jewish religion. Iran rebuilt the temple of the Jews in ancient Israel after it was destroyed by invaders and created the Torah for the Jews. This is where the Zoroastrian influences got into the Jew-Christian-Muslim-Bahia religions.
On a different note, it seems crazy to build such a thing anywhere near such an aggressive and unpredictable neighbor as Israel. Just look at what Israel has already done in Iran and Lebanon. I suppose nowhere without nuclear weapons of their own is safe from the US though.