Conventional nuclear plants are very expensive, being several times the cost of comparable gas, coal or gasification plants. The large, complex structures and systems required to ensure the safety of the public create most of these expenditures (billions of dollars) and introduce large financial risks to owners and investors alike, as history has demonstrated. Therefore, efforts to construct new nuclear facilities face challenges in many markets.

The conventional nuclear production process is relatively simple and involves using nuclear heat to create steam that subsequently drives a turbine generator. While the plants are somewhat inefficient (~33%), the price of nuclear fuel, as with coal, is a fraction of the cost of natural gas. Nuclear plants do not emit any greenhouse gases. Nuclear units are designed to operate at full power with natural gas and coal plants meeting the grid’s daily large load fluctuations; fifty percent or more swings in electrical needs between night and day are common.

In an effort to reduce the perceived risks associated with nuclear energy, a promising but not new technology relies on using a nuclear reactor to heat helium gas that subsequently drives a turbine generator. The helium is then recycled back through the reactor.

The process uses relatively inexpensive nuclear fuel and is efficient - approaching 50%. A key feature (unlike a conventional nuclear plant), in the event of an emergency, one could simply walk away from the facility, the core will not melt and the public remains quite safe. However, this superior level of safety comes at a price, as the gas reactor’s output can only be about oneseventh that of the conventional nuclear cousin. The initial investment risk is, however, more manageable as the plant is less costly.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the U.S. designed, constructed, licensed and operated gas reactor power stations. Over the last 50 years, hundreds of millions of dollars have been expended on high-temperature gas reactor research and development. Japan and China are operating prototype high-temperature gas reactors, and South Africa is building a prototype power plant.