Taking apart a nuke plant is hugely expensive, because it's contaminated with radioactivity, and everything must be handled very carefully. It costs about ten times as much to take it apart as it did to build it. The radioactive waste must be stored and monitored for several thousand years, and that adds to the cost.

that ever factored in when computing the total cost of nuclear power? It seems that would be a very real factor. The numbers for the Fukushima plant alone will be staggering. Who picks up the tab?

we, the taxpayers, are responsible for the costs because our beloved goverment supplies the insurance. For shame, congress!!! Of course, I do realize that Repugs don't know the meaning of that word. They only know how to steal from us, the working class, and give to the 1%. If corporations are people, why aren't any of them going to jail when convicted? Why don't they take responsibility for their sub-standard efforts? Why should we pay for their costs plus the top folks bonuses?

Steam/hydro might be a much cheapre alternative in Japan, a small island country surrounded by water... that might not be the case in, say, Nevada...?

Though if it's getting cheap anywhere, I guess Nevada would be a good bet! But then in landlocked states further north, maybe not. My point as just that geography is a factor in relative costs, which would seem to be the case either way.

So yes it has gotten cheaper somewhat.

http://energy.gov/savings/residential-renewable-energy-tax-credit

And it'll save on your energy bill too!

There are also other alternatives listed on the site.

...the comparison was "true" costs, i.e. without subsidies.

I'm not arguing against solar here, I just find the actual topic of the true costs of different energy sources to be interesting.

The fact that we're still using Nu-kil-ler energy does seem strange. As an old professor once told me Nuclear energy = a dumb way to boil water.

When you actually start to factor in more and more variables into the equation. The great thing about human economics is that we usually don't do that. Not because we don't care, although we don't, and aren't really built to care, but because we can't. If we tried to account for every variable, we'd never get anything done.