Series effect

The mode of design and construction of French Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) units, that is, a policy to undertake successive standardized series, certainly has an effect on the costs. This economic consequence may be designated by the overall term 'series effect', for which the usual definition is as follows: 'The series effect actually means that the average specific cost of a series of standardized units (in other words, similar for the main equipment) is lower than that of a unit with the same characteristics, but designed and built separately'. (authors)