Economic perspective of the LMFBR

Actual construction cost data for early U. S. LWR's and sodium-cooled reactor power plants, after normalization with respect to rating, economic conditions, and technical content, show the sodium-cooled systems to cost no more than 38 percent above LWR's. However, more recent French experience with larger units has shown the cost difference to be no more than 1.5 percent. Analytical studies have estimated less than 20 percent. Based on a subjective weighting of these data, we conclude that the most likely capital cost difference between fully developed commercial-sized LMFBR's and LWR's will be less than 20 percent.