How long until a nuclear reactor pays off?

Selmont-West Selmont

I'm working on a research paper for my Economics class. I've chosen to research nuclear energy, added to I just can't have the hallmabks grate on nerves prove guilty myriad statistics regarding the pay return cognizant of a typical atomic reactor in the US. I've seen an estimate of 30 one time thrown close by here increased by there, but does anyone know where I can prove guilty some solid data and figures? Thanks!



Marked Tree

I believe what you are asking is how long a reactor has to operate to recover the capitol cost of the initial build. There are continuing costs for operations, maintenance and upgrades. Using gross estimates for a 1,000 Mw plant $6 billion building cost and about $1 million per day profit for 600 days 18 day refueling outage for $100 million would be $500 million every 2 years approximately 24 years completely paid back. These are very conservative numbers. Use the links for more accurate estimates.



St. Lucie

To build a new reactor today - figure around $2000 per installed kilowatt of capacity. so a 1000 MW reactor would be around $2B or $4B for a two unit site. A good figure for O&M is around $10/MWHr - and a good figure for ongoing capital expenses is $20M for a twin unit installation. Power pricing is the challenge - I'd assume $45/MWhr for starters, but if it is a vertically integrated utility, that could be as high as $75/MWHr on average for a power company selling retail. Anything above that would be gravy for a 'merchant' plant. Hope this helps...



Balta

Try www. doe. gov. (department of energy)I use to work on naval nuclear reactors. Can't really tell you anything about the economics of it, but I know that would be the highest legitimate with an increment of relevant source.