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II.a Nuclear power costs

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Showing just the changes made in the edit by Tom Counsell at 2011-04-27 17:24:58 UTC

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Title: 2050 Nuclear power costs

Content: h1 Lead and sign-off

2050 Costs team lead - Michael Clark 

Working-level analyst - Henry Shennan, Anthony Moulds (DECC)

Senior analyst - Sam Thomas

h1 Data sources

MottMac10

Markal3.24Doc

MottMac11

ESME

Summary: D11/859001 Excel sheet: D11/729334

h1 Technologies costed in this sector

* Nuclear power plant
* Uranium enrichment
* Uranium imports
* Uranium disposal

h1 Nuclear power plant

Costs summary (£ per KW):

| Overall   | Low  | High   |
| Capital   | 1702 | 4418.8 |
| Operating | 46   | 97     |

h2 Current Calculator assumptions

* Lifetime =  No retirement before 2050 for new build from 2020, current legacy retires by 2035
* Efficiency =  36% thermal efficiency, 10% own use as a percentage of supplied electricity
* Load factor = 60-80% 
* Input Fuel = Uranium

h2 Investment Cost sources

* High cost = Nuclear 3rd Generation PWR - FOAK, from MottMac10, Availability = 100%, Aux power = 5.5% Life = 60yrs
* Low cost = Nuclear plant, - 30% from ref from ESME, Electrical efficiency = 38-41%, Availability = 85%, Life = 50yrs

h2 Fixed Operating Cost sources

* High cost = Nuclear 3rd Generation PWR - FOAK, from MottMac10, Availability = 100%, Aux power = 5.5% Life = 60yrs
* Low cost = Nuclear 3rd Generation PWR - NOAK, from MottMac10, Aux power = 4%, Availability = 80%, Life = 60yrs

h2 Built plant estimates

The headline figure often talked about by the leading UK developers (EdF and Horizon) and the UK government is £10bn for a twin or triple unit plant with a capacity of about 3GW net.  This is equivalent to about £3300/kW (€3800/kW and $4900/kW). UAE’s price for Kepco’s APR concluded in late 2009 (about £2400 (~$3,600).[MottMac11]

Both of these real world estimates fall within the range above.

h1 Uranium enrichment

Markal High cost of processing was 19% uranium enrichment and fuel fabrication and low cost 4.5%. 

h1 Uranium Imports

Uranium price assumptions taken from Markal3.24Doc Chapter 3 page 15.

Low costs = Global average lower range cost $30/kg, original source OECD/IAEA 2002 Assume global resources are 0.8Mt

High costs = Global average undiscovered uranium cost of $240/kg (note upper cost range of known resources is $110/kg), assume global resource is over 6.8Mt

h1 Uranium disposal

Markal - a constant price of £0.38m/PJ

h1 Issues, concerns and questions

* The cost of uranium disposal only occurs within the time period 2007-2050 and the cost of storage in those years beyond 2050 isn't accounted for.

Category: 2050 pathway costs



User: Tom Counsell

Picture updated at: 

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Signed off at: