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Study Concludes: Nuclear Costs Good in Long-Run

Nuclear power has a bright economically competitive future. It was determined that nuclear power plants can generate more electricity at a lower cost than other baseloads over its full lifetime.

The Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) recently published an updated edition of Projected Costs of Generating Electricity, in which the two agencies studied the expected costs of energy technologies currently being built and those commissioned by 2020.

A steering expert group used varying discount rates and assumptions to calculate energy costs at the plant level. The report used 181 plants in 22 countries in the study and included natural gas, coal, nuclear, solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, biomass and voltaic and combined heat and power plants.

The results:

• There is a shift in renewables and increased interest in low-carbon technologies.

• Nuclear had the lowest cost option for all participating countries at a 3% rate in combined baseload generation.

• Increasing baseload generation costs has stopped and dispels the chatter that nuclear costs continue to grow globally.

• SMRs and generation IV technologies provide potential economic advantages over other alternative technologies.

The full report can be viewed on the International Energy Agency website.

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