Nuclear power plants are very expensive. Not for the energy companies, but for the taxpayer. Reason is, that the nuclear waste has to be put away safely for thousands or millions of years. Yes, millions. Plutonium-isotope 239 has a half-life of 24 thousand years, Uranium isotope 235 has a half-life of 700 million years and Uranium-isotope 238 of 4 billion years (that's the time the earth exists). And half life means not, that after this time the material is no longer a threat. It means after this time the threat is reduced to the half (half of the material has degenerated). If you double the time, the fourth part of it has degenerated. So, even if you want to pay for securing the meterial for thousand years, it's very expensive: You need some area to put it in and you have some guards, so that nobody steals the stuff and make something bad with it. Because it's easily possible that the company that produced the waste is away after 100 years (did any of these companies exists 100 years before) it's a part of the tasks of the country to secure the radioactive waste. And even Plutonium needs thihs treat for at least thousands of years. Nobody really can pay this. BUt the energy companies don't have to, because they externalized these costs to the taxpayer they say nuclear power is cheap.
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