Decarbonisation hindered by rising cost of nuclear new build

These delays increase the cost of new nuclear compared with older projects and are often overlooked when new projects are planned. The authors said that these extra costs need to be properly assessed when considering new nuclear projects.

The authors of the study, which is published in Energy Policy, added that nuclear projects are more like ‘mega-projects’, such as large dams, which require more rigorous financial assessments due to their high uncertainty and risk.

The research team from Imperial College London, the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, and the University of Minho in Portugal also suggest that because delay-related costs make nuclear projects high risk, decision makers might instead focus on more low-risk, low-carbon technologies such as wind or solar power.

According to Imperial, when assessing the cost of new nuclear projects, decision makers often use ‘overnight construction costs’, which assume the project is built on time, usually within five years. However, the ‘lead-time’ – between initiation of the project and completion – can cause significant extra costs.