Nuclear power - up and down like a yoyo

The following questions were answered: what are some of the more significant factors affecting nuclear power's failure in the marketplace; what accounts for the gap between the design and performance of nuclear plants; has the nuclear industry exhibited learning during its years of operating nuclear plants; the yoyo factor is a new analysis, taking capacity factor one step further - what is its economic impact and how can it be used to judge a plant's performance; what [was discovered when] the cost of nuclear and coal plants [were compared]; does [the present] analysis take into account the social risks of using coal; doesn't coal also have scaling problems like nuclear power; what about the industry's charge that the cost of nuclear power is so excessive because of licensing regulations. Time taken to license and to construct, and the capacity of specific plants, are discussed. (U.K.)