Nuclear Plant Life Cycle Cost Analysis Considerations

There is an increasing awareness within the nuclear power industry of the need to perform detailed life cycle cost analyses (LCCA) to quantify the risks associated with investing in new equipment that is needed to improve plant capacity factors. In undertaking LCCA, there are three primary factors that need to be addressed: What are the considerations that go into performing life cycle cost analyses; what tools are available for undertaking them; and, given constrained resources, how does a plant operator determine which improvement or set of improvements will provide the best return on investment? This paper provides some recommendations regarding these questions.