IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v45y2012i1p288-295.html

Small modular reactors: Simpler, safer, cheaper?

Author

Listed:
  • Vujić, Jasmina
  • Bergmann, Ryan M.
  • Škoda, Radek
  • Miletić, Marija

Abstract

Nuclear energy can play a very significant long-term role for meeting the world’s increasing energy demands, while simultaneously addressing challenges associated with global climate and environmental impact. Many nations of the world, particularly the Asia/Pacific Rim countries, are actively engaged in a major expansion of their nuclear energy complex. The degree to which nuclear energy can address long-term energy needs, either globally or regionally, will be dictated by the pace and adequacy of technical and policy solutions for waste, safety, security, and non-proliferation issues, as well as the capital cost of construction. Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) could successfully address several of these issues. SMRs offer simpler, standardized, and safer modular design by being factory built, requiring smaller initial capital investment, and having shorter construction times. The SMRs could be small enough to be transportable, could be used in isolated locations without advanced infrastructure and without power grid, or could be clustered in a single site to provide a multi-module, large capacity power plant. This paper summarizes some of the basic features of SMRs for early deployment, several advanced SMR concepts, and points out the benefits and challenges in regulatory, economical, safety and security issues.

Suggested Citation

  • Vujić, Jasmina & Bergmann, Ryan M. & Škoda, Radek & Miletić, Marija, 2012. "Small modular reactors: Simpler, safer, cheaper?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 288-295.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:45:y:2012:i:1:p:288-295
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2012.01.078
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036054421200093X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2012.01.078?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lucas W. Davis, 2012. "Prospects for Nuclear Power," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 26(1), pages 49-66, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Mason, Charles F., 2014. "Uranium and nuclear power: The role of exploration information in framing public policy," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 49-63.
    2. Lovering, Jessica R. & Yip, Arthur & Nordhaus, Ted, 2016. "Historical construction costs of global nuclear power reactors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 371-382.
    3. Aalbers, Rob & Shestalova, Victoria & Kocsis, Viktória, 2013. "Innovation policy for directing technical change in the power sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1240-1250.
    4. repec:diw:diwwpp:dp1883 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Lucas Davis & Catherine Hausman, 2014. "The Value of Transmission in Electricity Markets: Evidence from a Nuclear Power Plant Closure," NBER Working Papers 20186, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. repec:diw:diwwpp:dp2011 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Alessandro Piazza & Fabrizio Perretti, 2015. "Categorical Stigma and Firm Disengagement: Nuclear Power Generation in the United States, 1970–2000," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(3), pages 724-742, June.
    8. Linares, Pedro & Conchado, Adela, 2013. "The economics of new nuclear power plants in liberalized electricity markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(S1), pages 119-125.
    9. Jean-Claude Berthélemy & Arnaud Millien, 2018. "Impact of Decentralized Electrification Projects on Sustainable Development: A Meta-Analysis," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-01922517, HAL.
    10. Vicki Duscha & Katja Schumacher & Joachim Schleich & Pierre Buisson, 2014. "Costs of meeting international climate targets without nuclear power," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 327-352, May.
    11. Roger Fouquet, 2012. "Economics of Energy and Climate Change: Origins, Developments and Growth," Working Papers 2012-08, BC3.
    12. repec:osf:osfxxx:fzqa6_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Wealer, B. & Bauer, S. & Hirschhausen, C.v. & Kemfert, C. & Göke, L., 2021. "Investing into third generation nuclear power plants - Review of recent trends and analysis of future investments using Monte Carlo Simulation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    14. Neidell, Matthew & Uchida, Shinsuke & Veronesi, Marcella, 2021. "The unintended effects from halting nuclear power production: Evidence from Fukushima Daiichi accident," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    15. Hayashi, Masatsugu & Hughes, Larry, 2013. "The Fukushima nuclear accident and its effect on global energy security," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 102-111.
    16. Augustine, Grace L. & Piazza, Alessandro, 2021. "Category Evolution under Conditions of Stigma: The Segregation of Abortion Provision into Specialist Clinics in the United States," OSF Preprints fzqa6, Center for Open Science.
    17. Managi, Shunsuke & Guan, Dabo, 2017. "Multiple disasters management: Lessons from the Fukushima triple events," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 114-122.
    18. Roger Fouquet (ed.), 2013. "Handbook on Energy and Climate Change," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14429, March.
    19. Piazza, Alessandro & Perretti, Fabrizio, 2015. "Categorical Stigma and Firm Disengagement: Nuclear Power Generation in the United States, 1970-2000," OSF Preprints xqkdj, Center for Open Science.
    20. Roman Mendelevitch & Thanh Thien Dang, 2016. "Nuclear Power and the Uranium Market: Are Reserves and Resources Sufficient?," DIW Roundup: Politik im Fokus 98, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    21. repec:diw:diwwpp:dp1833 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Rinne, Sonja, 2018. "Radioinactive: Are nuclear power plant outages in France contagious to the German electricity price?," CIW Discussion Papers 3/2018, University of Münster, Center for Interdisciplinary Economics (CIW).
    23. Ando, Michihito, 2015. "Dreams of urbanization: Quantitative case studies on the local impacts of nuclear power facilities using the synthetic control method," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 68-85.
    24. Carrara, Samuel, 2020. "Reactor ageing and phase-out policies: global and regional prospects for nuclear power generation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:energy:v:45:y:2012:i:1:p:288-295. 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.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    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.