According to the Department of Energy, the first 75 reactors built in the U.S. experienced cost overruns totaling over $100 billion and that was before the meltdown at Three Mile Island sent the nuclear industry even further into a tailspin.
| Construction Started |
Estimated Overnight Costs |
Actual Overnight Costs |
Percent Overrun |
| 1966-67 | $ 560/kWe | $1,170/kWe | 209% |
| 1968-69 | $ 679 | $2,000 | 294% |
| 1970-71 | $ 760 | $2,650 | 348% |
| 1972-73 | $1,117 | $3,555 | 318% |
| 1974-75 | $1,156 | $4,410 | 381% |
| 1976-77 | $1,493 | $4,008 | 269% |
(Joskow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Economics of Investment in New Nuclear Power Plants in the U.S, EIA Midterm Energy Outlook Conference, April 12, 2005. Note: Figures are in 2002$/kWe )
It was this economic track record that doomed nuclear power in the U.S. and led Forbes magazine to declare that the “failure of the U.S. nuclear power program ranks as the largest managerial disaster in business history, a disaster of monumental scale.” Really, who in their right mind would guarantee loans to an industry with this track record?
Last July, six major U.S. Banking institutions (some of which have been bought or are now bankrupt) including Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch & Morgan Stanley sent a letter to the Department of Energy (DOE). The bankers told DOE that unless the U.S. Taxpayer backed 100% of the debt incurred by nuclear corporations that they would have difficulty “accessing capital markets.”
– from greenpeace