Loss of benefits resulting from mandated nuclear plant shutdowns

This paper identifies and discusses some of the important consequences of nuclear power plant unavailability, and quantifies a number of technical measures of loss of benefits that result from regulatory actions such as licensing delays and mandated nuclear plant outages. The loss of benefits that accompany such regulatory actions include increased costs of systems generation, increased demand for nonnuclear and often scarce fuels, and reduced system reliability. This paper is based on a series of case studies, supplemented by sensitivity studies, on hypothetical nuclear plant shutdowns. These studies were developed by Argonne in cooperation with four electric utilities