THE NUCLEAR OPTION FOR UNITED-STATES ELECTRICAL GENERATING CAPACITY ADDITIONS UTILIZING BOILING WATER-REACTOR TECHNOLOGY

The technology status of the Advanced Boiling Water (ABWR) and Simplif ied Boiling Water (SBWR) reactors are presented along with an analysis of the economic potential of advanced nuclear power generation system s based on BWR technology to meet the projected domestic electrical ge nerating capacity need through 2005. The forecasted capacity needs are determined for each domestic North American Electric Reliability Coun cil (NERC) region. Extensive data sets detailing each NERC region's sp ecific generation and load characteristics, and capital and fuel cost parameters are utilized in the economic analysis of the optimal genera tion additions to meet this need by use of an expansion planning model . In addition to a reference case, several sensitivity cases are perfo rmed with regard to capital costs and fuel price escalation.