Nuclear power plant
A nuclear power plant (NPP)[1] or atomic power station (APS) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a generator that produces electricity. As of September 2023, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported there were 410 nuclear power reactors in operation in 32 countries around the world, and 57 nuclear power reactors under construction.[2][3][4]
Nuclear plants are very often used for base load since their operations, maintenance, and fuel costs are at the lower end of the spectrum of costs.[5] However, building a nuclear power plant often spans five to ten years, which can accrue to significant financial costs, depending on how the initial investments are financed.[6]
Nuclear power plants have a carbon footprint comparable to that of renewable energy such as solar farms and wind farms,[7][8] and much lower than fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal. Nuclear power plants are among the safest mode of electricity generation,[9] comparable to solar and wind power plants.[10]
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The economics of nuclear power plants is a controversial subject, and multibillion-dollar investments ride on the choice of an energy source. Nuclear power stations typically have high capital costs, but low direct fuel costs, with the costs of fuel extraction, processing, use and spent fuel storage internalized costs.[37] Therefore, comparison with other power generation methods is strongly dependent on assumptions about construction timescales and capital financing for nuclear stations. Cost estimates take into account station decommissioning and nuclear waste storage or recycling costs in the United States due to the Price Anderson Act.
With the prospect that all spent nuclear fuel could potentially be recycled by using future reactors, generation IV reactors are being designed to completely close the nuclear fuel cycle. However, up to now, there has not been any actual bulk recycling of waste from a NPP, and on-site temporary storage is still being used at almost all plant sites due to construction problems for deep geological repositories. Only Finland has stable repository plans, therefore from a worldwide perspective, long-term waste storage costs are uncertain.
Construction, or capital cost aside, measures to mitigate global warming such as a carbon tax or carbon emissions trading, increasingly favor the economics of nuclear power. Further efficiencies are hoped to be achieved through more advanced reactor designs, Generation III reactors promise to be at least 17% more fuel efficient, and have lower capital costs, while Generation IV reactors promise further gains in fuel efficiency and significant reductions in nuclear waste.
In Eastern Europe, a number of long-established projects are struggling to find financing, notably Belene in Bulgaria and the additional reactors at Cernavodă in Romania, and some potential backers have pulled out.[38] Where cheap gas is available and its future supply relatively secure, this also poses a major problem for nuclear projects.[38]
Analysis of the economics of nuclear power must take into account who bears the risks of future uncertainties. To date all operating nuclear power stations were developed by state-owned or regulated utilities where many of the risks associated with construction costs, operating performance, fuel price, and other factors were borne by consumers rather than suppliers.[39] Many countries have now liberalized the electricity market where these risks and the risk of cheaper competitors emerging before capital costs are recovered, are borne by station suppliers and operators rather than consumers, which leads to a significantly different evaluation of the economics of new nuclear power stations.[40]
Following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, costs are likely to go up for currently operating and new nuclear power stations, due to increased requirements for on-site spent fuel management and elevated design basis threats.[41] However many designs, such as the currently under construction AP1000, use passive nuclear safety cooling systems, unlike those of Fukushima I which required active cooling systems, which largely eliminates the need to spend more on redundant back up safety equipment.
According to the World Nuclear Association, as of March 2020:
The Russian state nuclear company Rosatom is the largest player in international nuclear power market, building nuclear plants around the world.[43] Whereas Russian oil and gas were subject to international sanctions after the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Rosatom was not targeted by sanctions.[43] However, some countries, especially in Europe, scaled back or cancelled planned nuclear power plants that were to be built by Rosatom.[43]
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Future development[edit]
Ongoing projects[edit]
As for March 2024, there are approximately 60 nuclear reactors for power plants being built worldwide, with a total capacity of 64GW,[72] with an additional 110 in the planning stages. The majority of these reactors, either under construction or planned, are located in Asia. In recent years, the commissioning of new reactors has been roughly offset by the decommissioning of older ones. Over the last two decades, while 100 reactors began operations, 107 were retired.[73]
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