Low incremental costs mean base-loaded nuclear reactors

The large increase in the operating costs of nuclear reactors is sufficient reason to reexamine the basis of loading nuclear plants. Average operating and management (O ampersand M) costs for nuclear plants in the Untied States have increased in the past decade from approximately $2/MWh to $11/MWh. In contrast, average O ampersand M costs of coal plants have held relatively steady in the $3 to $4/MWh range. The production costs of nuclear plants (where production costs are defined as the sum of O ampersand M and fuel costs) are nearly as high as the production costs of coal plants. These circumstances then are the reason for the following question: On weekends and/or during nightly low-demand periods, should we back off on the loads of nuclear plants? Fossil plants have been loaded (and unloaded) on the basis of incremental costs for many decades. The incremental cost approach must also be used on nuclear plants-to answer the question of night/weekend load-reduction duty. The two components of incremental production costs are fuel costs and O ampersand M costs. In summary, operating nuclear plants should continue on base-load duty because of their low incremental production costs