Plants are now expected to operate for 60 years and even longer in the future. The operating cost of these plants is lower than almost all fossil fuel competitors, with a very low risk of operating cost inflation. Existing plants function well with a high degree of predictability. lifetime) basis, nuclear power is an economic source of electricity generation, combining the advantages of security, reliability and very low greenhouse gas emissions. It takes into account the financing costs of the capital component (not just the 'overnight' cost). It is the total cost to build and operate a power plant over its lifetime divided by the total electricity output dispatched from the plant over that period, hence typically cost per megawatt hour. The basic economics metric for any generating plant is the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). If the social, health and environmental costs of fossil fuels are also taken into account, the competitiveness of nuclear power is improved. Waste disposal and decommissioning costs are usually fully included in the operating costs. In many places, nuclear energy is competitive with fossil fuels as a means of electricity generation. Nuclear power plants are expensive to build but relatively cheap to run.
Gas is also competitive for base-load power in many places, particularly using combined-cycle plants. Coal is, and will probably remain, economically attractive in countries such as China and Australia, as long as carbon emissions are cost-free or not fully costed.
Nuclear power plant construction is typical of large infrastructure projects around the world, whose costs and delivery challenges tend to be under-estimated.įor information on financing specifically, please see information page on Financing Nuclear Energy.Īssessing the relative costs of new generating plants utilizing different technologies is a complex matter and the results depend crucially on location.In assessing the economics of nuclear power, decommissioning and waste disposal costs are fully taken into account.Providing incentives for long-term, high-capital investment in deregulated markets driven by short-term price signals presents a challenge in securing a diversified and reliable electricity supply system.System costs for nuclear power (as well as coal and gas-fired generation) are very much lower than for intermittent renewables.
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