Economics of nuclear power plants

EDF has said its third-generation Flamanville 3 project (seen here in 2010) will be delayed until 2018, due to "both structural and economic reasons," and the project's total cost had climbed to EUR 11 billion by 2012.[1] In 2019, the start-up was once again pushed back, making it unlikely it could be started before the end of 2022. In July 2020, the French Court of Audit estimated the cost will reach €19.1 billion, more than 5 times the original cost estimate. The initial low cost forecasts for these megaprojects exhibited "optimism bias".[2]

Nuclear power construction costs have varied significantly across the world and over time. Large and rapid increases in costs occurred during the 1970s, especially in the United States. Recent cost trends in countries such as Japan and Korea have been very different, including periods of stability and decline in construction costs.

New nuclear power plants typically have high capital expenditure for building plants. Fuel, operational, and maintenance costs are relatively small components of the total cost. The long service life and high capacity factor of nuclear power plants allow sufficient funds for ultimate plant decommissioning and waste storage and management to be accumulated, with little impact on the price per unit of electricity generated. Additionally, measures to mitigate climate change such as a carbon tax or carbon emissions trading, favor the economics of nuclear power over fossil fuel power. Nuclear power is cost competitive with the renewable generation when the capital cost is between $2000 and $3000/kW. [3]

  1. ^ EDF raises French EPR reactor cost to over $11 billion, Reuters, Dec 3, 2012.
  2. ^ Mancini, Mauro and Locatelli, Giorgio and Sainati, Tristano (2015). The divergence between actual and estimated costs in large industrial and infrastructure projects: is nuclear special? In: Nuclear new build: insights into financing and project management. Nuclear Energy Agency, pp. 177–188.
  3. ^ Nian, Victor; Mignacca, Benito; Locatelli, Giorgio (15 August 2022). "Policies toward net-zero: Benchmarking the economic competitiveness of nuclear against wind and solar energy". Applied Energy. 320: 119275. Bibcode:2022ApEn..32019275N. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.119275. hdl:11311/1227558. ISSN 0306-2619. S2CID 249223353.