Original scientific paper

I2S-LWR Top-Down Differential Economics Evaluation Approach

Giovanni Maronati ; Nuclear and Radiological Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology 770 State St., Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
Bojan Petrović ; Nuclear and Radiological Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology 770 State St., Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
Nikola Čavlina ; Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb Unska 3, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The Integral Inherently Safe Light Water Reactor (I2S–LWR) is a design concept of a large
(~1000 MWe) light water reactor with integral primary circuit configuration. One of the key design
features promoting inherent safety is implementation of an integral primary circuit configuration,
which in turn requires a compact design of the core and primary circuit components.
Assessments of the cost of I2S-LWR is an important aspect of the overall evaluation of the new
reactor concept. There are several approaches to cost estimation and economics evaluation of the new
nuclear power technologies. Frequently used guidelines rely on the Code of Accounts, originally
developed in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Economics Data Base (EEDB) Program
Code of Accounts, proposed as evaluation tool by C.R. Hudson, and further popularized in the
guidelines for economic evaluation of bids, by The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The code of accounts allows to break down main costs (Total Capital Investment Cost, Fuel Cycle
Cost, Operation and Maintenance) to individual systems and items.
This work aims to implement and apply a top-down differential economics evaluation approach
to the Code of Accounts based guidelines, to assess the costs of the I2S -LWR relative to a
representative “standard” PWR. In this methodology, a representative PWR design was taken as a
reference and the differential cost was estimated for each individual account based on the design
difference (or similarity). Cost estimating techniques were applied to the accounts representing
systems that differ from the ones of the reference PWR. In this manner, the cost of the common
components cancels out, and the uncertainty in the estimate is reduced.
While this preliminary evaluation yet needs to be completed, the indications so far are that the
I2S-LWR LCOE will be economically competitive with a standard PWR.

Keywords

PWR; I2S-LWR; NPP Cost Assessment; Differential Economics; Code of Accounts

Hrčak ID:

199622

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/199622

Publication date:

15.10.2017.

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