EconomicpotentialofmodularreactornuclearpowerplantsbasedontheChineseHTR-PMprojectOriginalResearchArticle

ModularreactorswithimprovedsafetyfeatureshavebeendevelopedaftertheThree-MileIslandaccident.Economicsofsmallmodularreactorscomparedtolargelightwaterreactorswhosepoweroutputis10timeshigheristhemajorissueforthesekindofreactorstobeintroducedintothemarket.BasedontheChinesehightemperaturegas-cooledreactorpebble-bedmodule(HTR-PM)project,thispaperanalyzeseconomicalpotentialsofmodularreactornuclearpowerplants.Thereactorplantequipmentsaredividedinto6categoriessuchasRPVandreactorinternals,otherNSSScomponentsandsoon.Theeconomicimpactoftheseequipmentsisanalyzed.ItisfoundthatthemajordifferencebetweenanHTR-PMplantandaPWRisthecapitalcostsoftheRPVandthereactorinternals.Thefact,however,thatRPVandreactorinternalscostsaccountforonly2%ofthetotalplantcostsinPWRplantsdemonstratesthelimitedinfluenceofthisdifference.OnthepremiseofmultipleNSSSmodulesforminganuclearpowerplantwithaplantcapacityequivalenttoatypicalPWRplant,anuppervalueandatargetvalueofthetotalplantcapitalcostsareestimated.AcomparisonismadefortwodesignproposalsoftheChineseHTR-PMproject.Itisestimatedthatthespecificcostsofaready-to-build2×250MWthmodularplantwillbeonly5%higherthanthespecificcostsofone458MWthplant.Whenconsideringthetechnicaluncertaintiesofthelatter,a2×250MWthmodularplantseemstobemoreattractive.Finally,fourmainpointsarelistedforMHTGRstoachieveeconomicviability.