Nuclear fuel is several orders of magnitude more energy dense than coal. A "coal power plant using different fuel" would produce energy so cheap it couldn't be metered.
No, he's right. Nuclear plants are still just conventional thermal power plants. They "burn" stuff to generate heat and use the heat to drive a turbine. They can't be cheaper because burning coal doesn't have ultra high demands on how the boiler is designed. Meanwhile nuclear reactors can be arbitrarily complex.
That isn't my understanding, would love to learn more about how you come to that conclusion. (Ideally based on an idea like the one in the article vs just your run of the mill designed in 1950 power plant :-))
Are they changing any relevant part of the power generator compared to a 1950 plant? Are they at a minimum heating the steam into a higher temperature than what a modern coal plant do? (Are they using water? Because coal works on the limits of what you can do with water already.)
This article seems to have no detail at all, but all the information there seems to be about the reactor. Guess what, you won't build a nuclear reactor that is cheaper than a coal furnace, thus if you don't change anything on the power generator, you can't get cheaper than coal.
Lots actually, the way it is fueled, completely different (as in you don't re-fuel it you replace it) so all of the re-fueling infrastructure is not needed. They replace water (low pressure or high pressure) with helium which gives them two benefits, one it carries more heat and two it doesn't become a high explosive[1] when exposed to extreme temperature. Another benefit of helium is that if it leaks from the system, it carries no fission byproducts(like Cesium) in solution and has no radioactive isotopes with half lives of more than a second. 6-Helium has a half life of .8 seconds and emits a beta particle.
Most nuclear plants operate at lower steam temperatures than coal, because thermal efficiency isn't so critical and lower temperatures are less wear on the pipes and turbines.
WRT cost: Nuclear plants could be cheaper. Because, for instance, coal plants require scrubbers to meet particulate emissions rules, which are very expensive to install and operate. And coal is expensive: mining, transporation, cleaning.
And guess what is being mass decommissioned right now because it's too expensive?