In this section, you can access to the latest technical information related to the FUTURE project topic.

Small modular reactors: Methodology of economic assessment focused on incremental construction and gradual shutdown options

Small modular reactors (SMR) inherently offer two considerable options to improve their economics via module management: incremental construction and gradual shutdown. Incremental construction presumes the initial construction with fewer modules than available reactor bays at the plant. Further modules are purchased under favourable conditions later to improve the economics of the power plant. Although this approach results in worse economic indicators, the financial feasibility of the plant is viable due to the lower initial investment. Gradual shutdown option is applied when electricity price deteriorates and modules assigned to supply electricity are temporarily shut down. These options were applied to case study based on the NuScale reactor placed onto one of nowadays European electricity markets. Initial number of modules was set to 10 out of 12 reactor bays. Monte Carlo technique was employed in order to deal with stochastic nature of the economic environment. Deliverables confirmed that incremental construction and gradual shutdown improve the economics of the small modular reactors. Moreover it may save the feasibility of the project through achieving the balance between funding and economic effectiveness. Present value of these options concerning examined case study reaches approximately 300 mil. EUR and under favourable conditions up to ca. 600 mil. EUR.

» Author: Matthias Damert, Yunting Feng, Qinghua Zhu, Rupert J. Baumgartner

» Reference: Progress in Nuclear Energy, Volume 108

» Source: ScienceDirect - GPP

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