Loughborough University
Browse
PNUCENE-D-18-00257R1.pdf (923.01 kB)

Stakeholder perspectives on the cost requirements of small modular reactors

Download (923.01 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2019-01-25, 14:12 authored by Amritpal Singh Agar, Martin Goodfellow, Yee GohYee Goh, Linda B. Newnes
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd The cost of a nuclear power plant (NPP) is an important influence on the future commercial success of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). At the early design stage, the cost requirements of SMRs can be derived from an analysis of the factors driving the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE). It is often much later into the development process before customers are engaged and their cost requirements are known, by which time key design decisions which influence the lifecycle cost have already been locked-in. A clear understanding is required of the cost priorities for the key stakeholders who are to invest in the SMR. This paper presents a novel approach to ranking the relative importance of different cost factors used to calculate the LCOE. Using a dynamic stakeholder analysis, the key decision-makers for each stage of the SMR product lifecycle are identified. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with pair-wise comparisons obtained from nuclear cost experts is employed to rank the different factors in terms of their relative importance on the commercial success of a near-term deployable SMR. Each expert provides a different set of rankings, although project financing cost is consistently the most important for the successful commercial deployment of the SMR. The approach presented in this paper can be used as a verification method for any power generation technology to provide confidence that cost requirements are adequately captured to design for life cycle cost competitiveness from the perspective of different stakeholders.

Funding

This work was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Award, the Manufacturing Technology and Engineering Doctoral Centre and RollsRoyce Plc [grant number 1533156].

History

School

  • Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering

Published in

Progress in Nuclear Energy

Volume

112

Pages

51 - 62

Citation

AGAR, A.S. ... et al., 2019. Stakeholder perspectives on the cost requirements of small modular reactors. Progress in Nuclear Energy, 112, pp. 51 - 62.

Publisher

© Elsevier

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Progress in Nuclear Energy and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2018.12.006

Acceptance date

2018-12-03

Publication date

2018-12-11

Copyright date

2019

ISSN

0149-1970

Language

  • en

Usage metrics

    Loughborough Publications

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC