IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v104y2017icp395-403.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic evaluation of small modular nuclear reactors and the complications of regulatory fee structures

Author

Listed:
  • Vegel, Benjamin
  • Quinn, Jason C.

Abstract

Carbon emission concerns and volatility in fossil fuel resources have renewed world-wide interest in nuclear energy as a solution to growing energy demands. Several large nuclear reactors are currently under construction in the United States, representing the first new construction in over 30 years. Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) have been in design for many years and offer potential technical and economic advantages compared with traditionally larger reactors. Current SMR capital and operational expenses have a wide range of uncertainty. This work evaluates the potential for SMRs in the US, develops a robust techno-economic assessment of SMRs, and leverages the model to evaluate US regulatory fees structures. Modeling includes capital expenses of a factory facility and capital and operational expenses with multiple scenarios explored through a component-level capital cost model. Policy regarding the licensing and regulation of SMRs is under development with proposed annual US regulatory fees evaluated through the developed techno-economic model. Results show regulatory fees are a potential barrier to the economic viability of SMRs with an alternate fee structure proposed and evaluated. The proposed fee structure is based on the re-distribution of fees for all nuclear reactors under a single structure based on reactor thermal power rating.

Suggested Citation

  • Vegel, Benjamin & Quinn, Jason C., 2017. "Economic evaluation of small modular nuclear reactors and the complications of regulatory fee structures," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 395-403.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:104:y:2017:i:c:p:395-403
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2017.01.043
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421517300538
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.01.043?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ethan S. Warner & Garvin A. Heath, 2012. "Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Nuclear Electricity Generation," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 16(s1), pages 73-92, April.
    2. Iyer, Gokul & Hultman, Nathan & Fetter, Steve & Kim, Son H., 2014. "Implications of small modular reactors for climate change mitigation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 144-154.
    3. Dittmar, Michael, 2012. "Nuclear energy: Status and future limitations," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 35-40.
    4. Ramana, M.V. & Hopkins, Laura Berzak & Glaser, Alexander, 2013. "Licensing small modular reactors," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 555-564.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mignacca, Benito & Locatelli, Giorgio & Velenturf, Anne, 2020. "Modularisation as enabler of circular economy in energy infrastructure," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    2. Pablo Fernández-Arias & Diego Vergara & Álvaro Antón-Sancho, 2023. "Bibliometric Review and Technical Summary of PWR Small Modular Reactors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-15, July.
    3. Asuega, Anthony & Limb, Braden J. & Quinn, Jason C., 2023. "Techno-economic analysis of advanced small modular nuclear reactors," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    4. Black, Geoffrey A. & Aydogan, Fatih & Koerner, Cassandra L., 2019. "Economic viability of light water small modular nuclear reactors: General methodology and vendor data," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 248-258.
    5. Elaheh Shobeiri & Filippo Genco & Daniel Hoornweg & Akira Tokuhiro, 2023. "Small Modular Reactor Deployment and Obstacles to Be Overcome," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-19, April.
    6. Pham, An T. & Lovdal, Larson & Zhang, Tianyi & Craig, Michael T., 2022. "A techno-economic analysis of distributed energy resources versus wholesale electricity purchases for fueling decarbonized heavy duty vehicles," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).
    7. Mignacca, B. & Locatelli, G., 2020. "Economics and finance of Small Modular Reactors: A systematic review and research agenda," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    8. Froese, Sarah & Kunz, Nadja C. & Ramana, M.V., 2020. "Too small to be viable? The potential market for small modular reactors in mining and remote communities in Canada," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    9. Carlo L. Vinoya & Aristotle T. Ubando & Alvin B. Culaba & Wei-Hsin Chen, 2023. "State-of-the-Art Review of Small Modular Reactors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-30, April.
    10. Antti Teräsvirta & Sanna Syri & Pauli Hiltunen, 2020. "Small Nuclear Reactor—Nordic District Heating Case Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-16, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Iyer, Gokul & Hultman, Nathan & Fetter, Steve & Kim, Son H., 2014. "Implications of small modular reactors for climate change mitigation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 144-154.
    2. Elaheh Shobeiri & Filippo Genco & Daniel Hoornweg & Akira Tokuhiro, 2023. "Small Modular Reactor Deployment and Obstacles to Be Overcome," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-19, April.
    3. Ahmad, Ali & Ramana, M.V., 2014. "Too costly to matter: Economics of nuclear power for Saudi Arabia," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 682-694.
    4. Dong, Zhe & Liu, Miao & Zhang, Zuoyi & Dong, Yujie & Huang, Xiaojin, 2019. "Automatic generation control for the flexible operation of multimodular high temperature gas-cooled reactor plants," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 11-31.
    5. Guerra, K. & Haro, P. & Gutiérrez, R.E. & Gómez-Barea, A., 2022. "Facing the high share of variable renewable energy in the power system: Flexibility and stability requirements," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 310(C).
    6. Jānis Krūmiņš & Māris Kļaviņš, 2023. "Investigating the Potential of Nuclear Energy in Achieving a Carbon-Free Energy Future," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-31, April.
    7. Arnaut, Javier L., 2022. "The importance of uranium prices and structural shocks: Some implications for Greenland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    8. Miaomiao Yin & Keyuan Zou, 2021. "The Implementation of the Precautionary Principle in Nuclear Safety Regulation: Challenges and Prospects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-16, December.
    9. Treyer, Karin & Bauer, Christian & Simons, Andrew, 2014. "Human health impacts in the life cycle of future European electricity generation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(S1), pages 31-44.
    10. Seyed Ali Hosseini & Reza Akbari & Amir Saeed Shirani & Francesco D’Auria, 2023. "Small Modular Reactors Licensing Process Based on BEPU Approach: Status and Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-15, April.
    11. García, Lázaro & González, Daniel & García, Carlos & García, Laura & Brayner, Carlos, 2013. "Efficiency of the sulfur–iodine thermochemical water splitting process for hydrogen production based on ADS (accelerator driven system)," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 469-477.
    12. Valerii Havrysh & Antonina Kalinichenko & Edyta Szafranek & Vasyl Hruban, 2022. "Agricultural Land: Crop Production or Photovoltaic Power Plants," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-23, April.
    13. Elshkaki, Ayman & Graedel, T.E., 2015. "Solar cell metals and their hosts: A tale of oversupply and undersupply," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 167-177.
    14. Turconi, Roberto & Boldrin, Alessio & Astrup, Thomas, 2013. "Life cycle assessment (LCA) of electricity generation technologies: Overview, comparability and limitations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 555-565.
    15. Sandro Sacchelli & Valerii Havrysh & Antonina Kalinichenko & Dariusz Suszanowicz, 2022. "Ground-Mounted Photovoltaic and Crop Cultivation: A Comparative Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-20, July.
    16. Hong, Sanghyun & Bradshaw, Corey J.A. & Brook, Barry W., 2015. "Global zero-carbon energy pathways using viable mixes of nuclear and renewables," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 451-459.
    17. Wang, Ge & Zhang, Qi & Mclellan, Benjamin C. & Li, Hailong, 2016. "Multi-region optimal deployment of renewable energy considering different interregional transmission scenarios," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 108-118.
    18. Froese, Sarah & Kunz, Nadja C. & Ramana, M.V., 2020. "Too small to be viable? The potential market for small modular reactors in mining and remote communities in Canada," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    19. Scarlat, Nicolae & Prussi, Matteo & Padella, Monica, 2022. "Quantification of the carbon intensity of electricity produced and used in Europe," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    20. Flora, Rui & Marques, António Cardoso & Fuinhas, José Alberto, 2014. "Wind power idle capacity in a panel of European countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 823-830.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:104:y:2017:i:c:p:395-403. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.