Critical assessment of techniques, markets and overall economics of Generation III+ and IV reactors

This thesis performs a high-level assessment of the economic potential of Generation III+ and IV reactors. It examines both a market and product-based approach for the cost of new nuclear installations. It is the contention of this author that the support of the economic benefits for Generation IV reactors is unwarranted. Based on the uncertainties and lack of detailed design engineering completed, there is not sufficient evidence to suggest that Generation IV reactors, solely by virtue of their different design, will have higher economic potential than current LWRs. A market-based approach was initially taken to determine the upper bound for the cost of nuclear power. In every case, except when the Generation IV reactors had a low operating cost, their capital cost had to be lower than that of a LWR, due to their higher enrichment requirements. It was found that a change of ~0.1 c/kWh in the operation cost corresponded to a cost differential of ~200 $/kW in the capital cost.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Rush, Lucas Thorley.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jacopo Buongiorno.

• Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121823

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/121823