[ciphol]

> More than half of a nuclear plant is essentially the same as any large scale power plant (goal, gas...).

Presumably that's the cheap half of the nuclear plant, because coal/gas plants are pretty cheap to build.

[pfdietz]

Coal plants are actually not that cheap to build.

Combined cycle gas plants are cheap because 2/3rds of the power output is from the combustion turbine, which needs no heat exchangers. The steam bottoming part needs two: the boiler running off the exhaust from the combustion turbine, and the condenser to transfer heat to the environment.