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Nuclear Power: Technical and Institutional Options for the Future (1992)

Chapter: Appendix B Criteria Developed for the Comparative Analysis of Advanced Reactor Technologies

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Criteria Developed for the Comparative Analysis of Advanced Reactor Technologies." National Research Council. 1992. Nuclear Power: Technical and Institutional Options for the Future. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1601.
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Appendix B

CRITERIA DEVELOPED FOR THE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ADVANCED REACTOR TECHNOLOGIES

In accordance with the Statement of Task (see Preface, Task 2) the Committee developed criteria to evaluate the technological options. These criteria reflected the characteristics that the Committee deemed most important for future U.S. nuclear power plants. These criteria also were furnished to the reactor vendors before their presentations to the Committee. The Committee then assessed the relative merits of the reactor technologies under each broad heading (Criteria A through H) listed below.

  1. SAFETY IN OPERATION

    1. Safety Goal - Please identify the safety goals of the technology under discussion, why they were chosen, and the measures to achieve them. The discussion should include estimated probabilities of major core damage and release of radiation outside the plant, and the methodology and assumptions for the analysis. An explicit treatment of uncertainties should be included.

    2. Safety Features - Explain various safety features--categorized into passive or active systems--that contribute to the total nuclear plant safety. Please identify the major engineering or scientific questions about the effectiveness of these features as well as the experiments or additional analyses needed to validate them.

    3. Safety Issues - Please discuss how the proposed technology addresses various safety issues and dominant accident sequences. Additional safety concerns or accident sequences engendered by the technology should be treated. The one or two dominant safety issues should be identified.

    4. Safety Indicators - Please discuss other potential safety indicators, such as estimated frequency of unplanned scrams.

    5. Ease of Maintenance - Please discuss features of the technology that support or detract from ease of essential maintenance. Also, address the requirements and schedule for preventive maintenance.

    6. Worker Safety - Safety of the workers during maintenance or otherwise should be addressed, along with expected occupational doses.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Criteria Developed for the Comparative Analysis of Advanced Reactor Technologies." National Research Council. 1992. Nuclear Power: Technical and Institutional Options for the Future. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1601.
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  1. ECONOMY OF CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION

    1. Construction Costs - Please provide estimates of construction costs in constant 1989 dollars (indicating whether or not the costs of borrowing money are included in the estimate, and if so, what such costs are), and provide total nuclear plant costs as well as cost per installed electrical kilowatt. Please discuss how the estimates were arrived at, covering the principal assumptions, numerical estimates and so forth.

    2. Time to Construct - Please provide estimates of the time likely to be required to construct a new nuclear plant and reach commercial operation. Discuss the estimate, including the assumptions made concerning the new Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing process.

    3. Uncertainties - Please estimate and discuss the uncertainties in both costs and time to reach commercial operation.

    4. Operating Costs - Please provide estimates of operating costs over the plant's life expressed in constant 1989 dollars. Fuel cycle costs, operation and maintenance costs, and capital costs should be identified separately. Outline any assumptions you have made regarding new regulatory requirements. Expected lifetime of the plant should be discussed.

    5. Availability - Please provide and discuss estimates of expected availability, and the frequency and duration of planned outages and refueling outages.

  1. SUITABILITY FOR FUTURE MARKETS: Your choices of technology, reactor characteristics and your organizational commitment to particular technologies were driven in part by perceptions of the character of future markets for new electrical generation equipment. Please discuss your organization's perceptions of the characteristics of this market, and discuss how your technology and reactor concepts fit these perceptions. For example:

    1. Problems in the “First Nuclear Era” - Outline what you think went wrong with the current generation of power reactors and why the technology under discussion will not encounter the same obstacles.

    2. Competitive Non-Nuclear Technologies - What technologies will offer the strongest competition to nuclear power in the future? How well will the nuclear technology being discussed fare in the most important dimensions of this competition?

    3. Operational - What electrical demand growth rates are likely? What are the implications of current trends to deregulation of electricity generation

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Criteria Developed for the Comparative Analysis of Advanced Reactor Technologies." National Research Council. 1992. Nuclear Power: Technical and Institutional Options for the Future. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1601.
×

and to growth of independent power producers? How does the nuclear technology fit in the new framework you foresee? What revised mix of generating technologies seems most likely? What will be the role of nuclear? Can it and your technology meet revised demands such as load following?

  1. Life Cycle Relationships - Address contemplated relationshipsincluding lines of communication, authority, and responsibility as well as warranties--between organizations such as architect-engineers, vendors, nuclear steam system suppliers, owners, and operators from the design stage through decommissioning of a nuclear plant embodying the technology.

  2. Financial - What attitudes do you foresee in the financial community to nuclear power and to your technology in particular? Indicate why the financial community would be inclined to lend money for this type of technology. For example, show how this technology can be expected to resolve some of the concerns about nuclear power, and how the technology would change the risk-reward ratio to make it more attractive than it is today for nuclear power.

  3. Other Institutional Factors - Please address the technology in light of the competence of utility management (including the "utility management culture," a term referring to the quality and motivations of both management and staff that operate nuclear plants), the " regulatory compact" (State Public Utilities Commissions, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and prudency), emerging trends toward deregulation of electricity generation and acquisition of new power supply through competitive mechanisms, standardization (multiple architect/engineers, vendors, designers, and constructors), U.S. indemnity measures (such as Price-Anderson), and U.S. tax and incentive policies (Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, Public Utility Holding Company Act).

  4. Siting - Discuss siting needs, possible restrictions, and any other related issues.

  1. FUEL CYCLE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS: Please address the long-term environmental implications of the fuel cycle employed by the technology being presented. Specifically speak to the problems of spent fuel storage and long term waste disposal. Also comment on enrichment requirements. Please discuss "day-to-day " plant-related environmental considerations.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Criteria Developed for the Comparative Analysis of Advanced Reactor Technologies." National Research Council. 1992. Nuclear Power: Technical and Institutional Options for the Future. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1601.
×
  1. RESISTANCE TO DIVERSION AND SABOTAGE

    1. Diversion - Please show how the technology addresses concerns about the possible forceful theft of militarily significant nuclear materials or their clandestine diversion. Address such events both at the nuclear plant itself and in the process of transporting nuclear materials to or from the plant.

    2. Sabotage - Describe the features that could help prevent sabotage by outsiders or knowledgeable insiders.

  1. TECHNOLOGY RISK AND DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

    1. Critical Developments - Please identify the critical technical developments needed for this technology, and highlight the “go - no go” issues; indicate the essential elements of the R&D program to address these important matters. Identify the tests necessary to demonstrate critical technologies before commercialization.

    2. Status of Tests and Demonstrations - Indicate what major systems or components have already been tested or demonstrated to a level of assurance believed adequate for use in future plants, and what remains to be tested or demonstrated.

    3. Demonstration - Please explain the difficulty or ease of demonstrating whether the technology can live up to claims such as safety, economy, environmental acceptability, and licenseability. For example, would a demonstration plant have to be built to attain (or convince other important decision makers of the attainment of) the level of assurance believed necessary before deploying many such plants? How long would it have to be operated, and so forth?

    4. Technology Readiness - Please estimate the date of availability of this technology for demonstration, and the date of availability for commercialization based on Nuclear Regulatory Commission certification as a standardized plant.

    5. Research and Development Facility Requirements - Discuss the research and development (R&D) facilities needed. If U.S. government assistance is contemplated, identify what facilities (e.g., at the National Laboratories) would be needed to support R&D of the technology and the scope and estimated cost of such support.

    6. Availability of Materials and Components - Indicate whether there are any critical materials, components, manufacturing processes, or other items

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Criteria Developed for the Comparative Analysis of Advanced Reactor Technologies." National Research Council. 1992. Nuclear Power: Technical and Institutional Options for the Future. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1601.
×

that are not presently available but would be necessary for successful commercialization. Discuss the resolution of any availability problems.

  1. Critical Path Schedule - Please show and discuss a "master" or "top-level" schedule for completion of R&D, demonstration (if required) and commercialization, indicating the critical path items.

  2. Development Cost - Provide a time phased estimate of the overall research, development, and demonstration costs (in constant 1989 dollars) needed to move from today's level of maturity to readiness for commercial application. Indicate the contemplated or potential source(s) for the money.

  1. AMENABILITY TO EFFICIENT AND PREDICTABLE LICENSING

    1. Efficiency - Discuss the ease or difficulty of meeting current or anticipated U.S. safety, environmental, and security and safeguards regulatory requirements (e.g., indicate whether the requirement for a containment would have to be changed).

    2. Predictability - Identify any features of the technology that make it more likely to be licensed in a predictable way (e.g., simplicity and standardization). Identify any plausible regulatory requirements that could prevent the licensing of this technology. Address ways of resolving the "as licensed" versus "as built" issue.

  1. NET ASSESSMENT: In closing please discuss, why, in your judgment the technology will be good enough to:

    • cause the CEOs of utilities and of independent power production companies to buy it;

    • give the financial community the reasons and the confidence to finance it; and

    • cause the public to accept it.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Criteria Developed for the Comparative Analysis of Advanced Reactor Technologies." National Research Council. 1992. Nuclear Power: Technical and Institutional Options for the Future. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1601.
×
Page 209
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Criteria Developed for the Comparative Analysis of Advanced Reactor Technologies." National Research Council. 1992. Nuclear Power: Technical and Institutional Options for the Future. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1601.
×
Page 210
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Criteria Developed for the Comparative Analysis of Advanced Reactor Technologies." National Research Council. 1992. Nuclear Power: Technical and Institutional Options for the Future. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1601.
×
Page 211
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Criteria Developed for the Comparative Analysis of Advanced Reactor Technologies." National Research Council. 1992. Nuclear Power: Technical and Institutional Options for the Future. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1601.
×
Page 212
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Criteria Developed for the Comparative Analysis of Advanced Reactor Technologies." National Research Council. 1992. Nuclear Power: Technical and Institutional Options for the Future. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1601.
×
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Nuclear Power: Technical and Institutional Options for the Future Get This Book
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The construction of nuclear power plants in the United States is stopping, as regulators, reactor manufacturers, and operators sort out a host of technical and institutional problems.

This volume summarizes the status of nuclear power, analyzes the obstacles to resumption of construction of nuclear plants, and describes and evaluates the technological alternatives for safer, more economical reactors. Topics covered include:

  • Institutional issues—including regulatory practices at the federal and state levels, the growing trends toward greater competition in the generation of electricity, and nuclear and nonnuclear generation options.
  • Critical evaluation of advanced reactors—covering attributes such as cost, construction time, safety, development status, and fuel cycles.

Finally, three alternative federal research and development programs are presented.

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