Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants

Re:Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants by parineum on Thursday April 30, 2026 @10:23AM (#47962963)

> If nuclear is so safe, how come nobody is willing to insure it?

Almost every plant is bespoke, leading each plant to have unknown failure modes and rates. Additionally, insurance works by pooling risk amongst a large group of individuals but the statistical uncertainties of failure rates (too few events) and low total rate of plants leads to an incredibly uncertain risk profile.

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Re:Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants by mannykannot on Thursday April 30, 2026 @10:37AM (#47963206)

The claim made in your first sentence is actually a reason to be concerned.

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Re:Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants by thrownthatway on Thursday April 30, 2026 @10:45AM (#47963359)

And also largely irrelevant to a possible future standardised fleet.

Also, obviously, that could lead to an issue with one being an issue with many.

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Re:Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants by pqtyw on Thursday April 30, 2026 @12:43PM (#47965102)

The fact that it's impossible to estimate the risk because the failure rates are unknown is concerning?

Yes, more frequent failures would make it easier for insurance companies to estimate the risk and calculate premiums but I don't exactly see how that would be good thing...

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