Capital cost escalation and the choice of power stations

Journal Article · Sat Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1979 · Energy Policy; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/0301-4215(79)90035-1· OSTI ID:6806128

Shaw, K R

The UK Energy Commission has endorsed the case for nuclear power at baseload on the grounds of its reduced vulnerability to fuel-price escalation. Yet with a future climate of tighter environmental restrictions and escalating capital costs, nuclear power could be an ominous liability. The author examines the increase of Advanced Gas Cooled Graphite Moderated Reactor (AGR) construction costs in the UK and light water reactor (LWR) costs in the USA and Germany and shows that, with expanding nuclear power plant material requirements in the last decade, costs have risen considerably faster than inflation. Projecting the trend a further decade, as is consistent with US and German estimates, suggests that by 2000 the extra real annual cost of a UK nuclear program could be 3 billion pounds greater than the equivalent coal program.

• Research Organization: Hedges and Butler, London, United Kingdom
• OSTI ID: 6806128
• Journal Information: Energy Policy; (United States), Journal Name: Energy Policy; (United States) Vol. 7:4; ISSN ENPYA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210100 -- Power Reactors
Nonbreeding
Light-Water Moderated
Boiling Water Cooled
210300 -- Power Reactors
Nonbreeding
Graphite Moderated
210800 -- Nuclear Power Plants-- Economics
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
296001* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Electric Power Generation-- (-1989)
AGR TYPE REACTORS
CAPITALIZED COST
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CONSTRUCTION
COST
ECONOMIC IMPACT
ECONOMICS
ENRICHED URANIUM REACTORS
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS
GAS COOLED REACTORS
GCR TYPE REACTORS
GRAPHITE MODERATED REACTORS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
POWER PLANTS
REACTORS
REGULATIONS
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
WATER COOLED REACTORS