Economic competitiveness of the new generation of NPPs with NP-500 units in Russia Original Research Article

An economic analysis of NPPs with the new design of the average capacity unit (NP-500) developed in Russia is carried out. The design is characterized by the application of passive safety systems, and a double protective containment, that allows a decrease in the probability of a severe accident by 2 or 3 orders of magnitude in comparison with present VVER units, operated at modern NPPs. The NP-500 unit has a capacity of 635 MWe; it is more compact, and therefore it has a smaller specific consumption of materials and a smaller number of regular staff. Licensing of the design on the basis of international practice is now nearing completion. The published data on costs by the Joint Parallel Nuclear Alternatives Study (JPNAS), executed for the US-Russia Joint Commission on Economic and Technological Cooperation, as well as recent forecasts by different authors for the period 1995–2010 on power consumption, specific investments in thermal power plants and the costs of organic fuels for different regions of Russia are used. An original methodology for analysis of equilibrium prices of energy (marginal costs), competition for developing power technologies and accounting for a factor of inertia in power systems is described. The total self-sufficiency of Russia with nuclear fuel for the forecasting period and the necessity of adequate development of the organic power infrastructure are taken into account. The individual rates of development of the different competitive energy technologies and appropriate returns on capital are determined. The competitiveness of NPPs with NP-500 units in different regions of Russia is analyzed. The attractiveness of investment in this objective is emphasized.