ABSTRACT
As mentioned in Chapter 7, unlike fossil energy systems such as coal, oil, and gas, both nuclear and renewable energy systems for electric (and for some nonelectric) applications require large amount of investment costs. While fossil energy systems have lower capital costs and an advantage of existing infrastructure, they incur higher operating costs. The electricity generations from fossil energy are competitive because fossil energy systems take advantage of economy of scale. Fossil fuels can also act as a backup storage system for the peak power demand. As shown in Chapter 7, nuclear energy systems are also large-scale systems, and the nuclear technologies are matured and well developed. Fossil energy systems suffer from harmful greenhouse gas emissions, and nuclear energy systems (ssion based) suffer from the issues of nuclear waste treatment and nite life of ssion process.
