[palmer]

A GW for a year is 8,760,000,000,000 Wh or 8,760,000,000 kWh or $262 million at the cheapest power prices about 3 cents per kWh. For 5,000 kg of gold that's $52,000 per kg or $52 per gram.

Current gold price is $106 per gram. So they would cut the gold price in half at best. At worst they would have higher power and overhead costs.

[Jonty30]

The company would be looking at it as a by-product of the nuclear process. Kind of like using waste heat to keep the building warm and powered through the use of nuclear power. Since you’re using nuclear power anyway, those costs are set. However, with a minimal set-up, you could also be turning mercury into gold.

I’m not sure if that is a wise policy, because we may eventually find some process that needs mercury and results in mercury becoming more valuable than gold.

[marktwain]

I think they are saying 5K kilograms of gold per 2.5 Gigawatthours of energy production.