ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the levelised cost of electricity for new nuclear power. It explores levelised cost, assuming that the costs are constant in each year of plant operation. The chapter examines nuclear fuel costs and probability distributions and outlines operations and maintenance (O&M) costs and probability distributions. It also presents first-of-a-kind and nth-of-a-kind deterministic levelised cost estimates for new nuclear. The chapter shows how to model the uncertainties based on the means and variances of historic data for nuclear fuel and O&M costs. Low enriched uranium fuel accounting is complex if done precisely–that is, by considering lead and lag times of each fuel bundle from the first fuel core through to the last fuel core, including irradiated fuel management. Little is available in the public domain regarding the O&M costs of the operating light water reactors. M. Haire’s capital costs are based on estimates of nuclear fuel reprocessing costs from design studies with early 1980s health and safety standards.
