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Latest comment: 3 months ago by TheMoonLaw in topic Adding cost counter argument in debate topic
This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Nuclear power article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the subject of the article.
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Good article Nuclear power has been listed as one of the Engineering and technology good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
June 27, 2008 Good article nominee Not listed
September 8, 2018 Peer review Reviewed
April 21, 2021 Good article nominee Listed
Current status: Good article
This level-3 vital article is rated GA-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
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Text or other creative content from this version of Nuclear power was copied or moved into History of nuclear power with this edit. The former page's history now serves to provide attribution for that content in the latter page, and it must not be deleted as long as the latter page exists.
Section size for Nuclear power (42 sections)
Section nameByte countProse size (words)
HeaderTotalHeaderTotal
(Top) 5,0925,092422422
History 7336,44501,951
Origins 5,4165,416377377
First power generation 2,6242,624189189
Expansion and first opposition 9,0819,081373373
Chernobyl and renaissance 6,1266,126358358
Fukushima accident 4,9874,987225225
Current prospects 8,1388,138429429
Power plants 3,5683,568207207
Fuel cycle 2,97947,0452782,567
Uranium resources 8,6478,647451451
Waste 1,56621,1711001,068
High-level waste 8,7498,749426426
Low-level waste 7967966969
Waste relative to other types 4,5444,544246246
Waste disposal 5,5165,516227227
Reprocessing 6,9136,913433433
Breeding 7,3357,335337337
Decommissioning 2,5602,5607272
Production 8,9718,971342342
Economics 12,64512,645777777
Use in space 2,0012,001123123
Safety 9,52123,8895421,345
Accidents 10,80310,803631631
Attacks and sabotage 3,5653,565172172
Proliferation 7,7827,782564564
Geo-political risk 9959957171
Environmental impact 2,3778,286135443
Carbon emissions 3,8893,889137137
Radiation 2,0202,020171171
Debate 19,19433,3057251,209
Comparison with renewable energy 9,01414,111218484
Speed of transition and investment needed 3,1773,177197197
Land use 1,9201,9206969
Research 139,3190549
Advanced fission reactor designs 1,0951,0959292
Hybrid fusion-fission 1,0411,041112112
Fusion 7,1707,170345345
See also 31931900
References 303000
Further reading 4,7024,70200
External links 81081000
Total 207,764 207,764 10,642 10,642


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Article review

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Latest comment: 7 months ago 14 comments4 people in discussion

It has been a while since this article has been reviewed, so I took a look and noticed the following:

  • There's uncited statements in the article including entire paragraphs.
  • At over 10,000 words long, this article is too detailed and WP:TOOBIG. I suggest that information be spun out, summarised more effectively, or trimmed.

Should this article go to WP:GAR? Z1720 (talk) 02:41, 9 July 2025 (UTC) Reply

Just a comment: according to WP:TOOBIG, 10,000 words does not mean it's too big necessarily: "Probably should be divided or trimmed, though the scope of a topic can sometimes justify the added reading material.". This article's large scope may justify the length, although I agree some details may be trimmed (especially in the debate section, by far the largest one). As for the uncited statements, could you add tags to them when you see them so they can be fixed? Thanks Ita140188 (talk) 07:31, 9 July 2025 (UTC) Reply
@Ita140188 the article needs reorganising into more of a summary format linking to main articles on the different sub topics.
For example, the third paragraph of the lede, a WP:NPOV stretching polemic about nuclear safety, could be cut and handled later in the article with a shorter summary section containing a main article link to Nuclear safety and security.
In its current form, the article tends to go into too much detail in sections where there are already main articles that cover the detail. Duncnbiscuit (talk) 08:49, 9 July 2025 (UTC) Reply
In principle I agree. A lot of this extra content was added (or kept) in response to comments from the GA review and as a result of compromises among different points of view among editors. I can try to trim these parts and add missing references to avoid going through a full GAR if you think there is a chance. Ita140188 (talk) 09:27, 9 July 2025 (UTC) Reply
I don't disagree with: "the article tends to go into too much detail in sections where there are already main articles that cover the detail." but overall, this subject is a HUGE subject, and so the overall article will be big.
I'm sure we could make much of it more concise, but I almost see this as a list article: "List of topics related to nuclear power" because of the number of associated articles. ---Avatar317 (talk) 01:12, 11 July 2025 (UTC) Reply
@Ita140188 and Avatar317: It has been a while since the last major edit to the article. Are either of you, or anyone reading this, still interested in working on this article? For the comments about the page size above: I think its OK to have lots of sections with a brief introduction and a hatnote above the text where the reader can get more information. This will help with navigation and prevent this article from getting too big. Z1720 (talk) 18:01, 11 August 2025 (UTC) Reply
I'm interested in working on it. If you point out places where you think there are problems, I can work on improvements. ---Avatar317 (talk) 00:37, 12 August 2025 (UTC) Reply
@Avatar317: I have added citation needed tags to uncited statements in the article. I also suggest that interested editors read through the article and move information to other articles that are too detailed for a general article like this. Generally, I suggest that each heading (no matter the level) have 2-4 paragraphs underneath it. Z1720 (talk) 01:20, 12 August 2025 (UTC) Reply
Thanks for that suggestion: "2-4 paragraphs"; I'll work on it in the next couple days. ---Avatar317 (talk) 01:26, 12 August 2025 (UTC) Reply
Of course I'm also interested in continuing working on it. Will keep an eye on the changes and try to add references and trim the article where needed in the next few days Ita140188 (talk) 07:50, 12 August 2025 (UTC) Reply

@Avatar317 and Ita140188: There are still citation needed and failed verification tags in the article. Are you still interested in working on this? Of course, there is no obligation to do so. Z1720 (talk) 00:16, 3 November 2025 (UTC) Reply

Yes, I had to pause the work as I was quite busy off-wiki recently. I will resume the revision this week. Ita140188 (talk) 06:58, 3 November 2025 (UTC) Reply

EBR-1 was located in Idaho not Argonne National Lab the image caption is incorrect

[edit ]
Latest comment: 10 months ago 2 comments2 people in discussion

Just letting you know, thank you. 204.102.229.130 (talk) 15:47, 23 September 2025 (UTC) Reply

The caption says Argonne-West. That's technically correct since Idaho National Laboratory used to be known as Argonne West. NPguy (talk) 17:19, 23 September 2025 (UTC) Reply

Compared to what?

[edit ]
Latest comment: 7 months ago 2 comments2 people in discussion

There's a lot of new text on the hazards of nuclear power and nuclear waste. I don't have the time or expertise to review but want to point out a few shortcomings:

  • There is an inordinate focus on the impacts of uranium mining in the United States. Very little uranium mining takes place in the United States
  • The drawbacks of nuclear power are not presented in comparative terms. How do radiation dangers from nuclear energy compare to dangers from other power sources? There is a comparison with the waste volume from solar and wind power, but waste volume is not the most important thing and waste toxicity from coal is much worse.
  • The section on environmental justice in particular fails to make any such comparisons.

Since energy choices are always comparisons of alternatives, presentation of these issues without such comparisons is misleading. NPguy (talk) 22:36, 5 December 2025 (UTC) Reply

On a quick scan of those new additions, I agree with you; especially the focus on US uranium mining, which was predominantly (during the time of the social injustice issues) done for weapons, not nuclear power.
I'll try to review and probably trim for UNDUEness. ---Avatar317 (talk) 00:45, 10 December 2025 (UTC) Reply

Duplicated references

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Latest comment: 4 months ago 1 comment1 person in discussion
Blocked sockpuppeteer This discussion has been disrupted by block evasion, ban evasion, or sockpuppetry from the following user:

Their comments should be excluded from assessments of consensus.

I am not experienced at removing duplicated references, but I would like to solve that for this article. Can anyone help fix that or show me how? Iljhgtn (they/them · talk) 00:47, 3 April 2026 (UTC) Reply

Adding cost counter argument in debate topic

[edit ]
Latest comment: 3 months ago 1 comment1 person in discussion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power#Debate:~:text=Critics%20find%20that,of%20individual%20countries.


I feel like this part ignores the issue with new regulations that may often be quite harsh on the nuclear plants and often lead to extra building time.

Here are some sources:

Source 1)

https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/nuclear/regulations-hurt-economics-nuclear-power/#:~:text=Between%201970%20and%201978%2C%20overnight,to%20the%20rising%20cost%20trend.

>The American Action Forum (AAF) found the average nuclear plant bears an annual regulatory burden of around 60ドル million—8ドル.6 million in regulatory costs, 22ドル million in fees to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and 32ドル.7 million for regulatory liabilities. That amount covers long-term costs associated with disposing of waste, paperwork compliance, and regulatory capital expenditures and fees paid to the federal government. Further, they found that there are at least six nuclear plants where regulatory burdens exceed profit margins, assuming only a 30ドル million annual regulatory burden.

Between 1970 and 1978, overnight construction costs increased by up to 200 percent, or 5 to 15 percent annually. The authors concluded that licensing, regulatory delays, and back-fit requirements were significant contributors to the rising cost trend.


Source 2) https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2020/08/unlocking-reductions-in-the-construction-costs-of-nuclear_2ca6777b/33ba86e1-en.pdf

There are quite a lot of mentions about regulations in this article, however, page 61 mentions: "The older U.S. LWR fleet shows a large range in cost, in part because of the significant turbulence in electricity demand, construction delays, and regulation (following the Three Mile Island accident) that characterized the late 1970s and 1980s." Page 35

Page 137 criticizes cumulative impact and mentions that inconsistent requirements may may result in under or over design of some components TheMoonLaw (talk) 18:38, 13 April 2026 (UTC) Reply

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