Can Nuclear Batteries Be Economically Competitive in Large Markets?

We introduce the concept of the nuclear battery, a standardized, factory-fabricated, road transportable, plug-and-play micro-reactor. Nuclear batteries have the potential to provide on-demand, carbon-free, economic, resilient, and safe energy for distributed heat and electricity applications in ever...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jacopo Buongiorno, Ben Carmichael, Bradley Dunkin, John Parsons, Dirk Smit
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-07-01
Series:Energies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/14/4385
Description
Summary:We introduce the concept of the nuclear battery, a standardized, factory-fabricated, road transportable, plug-and-play micro-reactor. Nuclear batteries have the potential to provide on-demand, carbon-free, economic, resilient, and safe energy for distributed heat and electricity applications in every sector of the economy. The cost targets for nuclear batteries in these markets are 20–50 USD/MWh<sub>t</sub> (6–15 USD/MMBTU) and 70–115 USD/MWh<sub>e</sub> for heat and electricity, respectively. We present a parametric study of the nuclear battery’s levelized cost of heat and electricity, suggesting that those cost targets are within reach. The cost of heat and electricity from nuclear batteries is expected to depend strongly on core power rating, fuel enrichment, fuel burnup, size of the onsite staff, fabrication costs and financing. Notional examples of cheap and expensive nuclear battery designs are provided.
ISSN:1996-1073