Executive Summary

Nuclear energy has been reinvigorated as a scalable and reliable pathway to produce carbon-free energy by governments and companies that are pursuing deep decarbonization targets. One such technology developed during the last four decades and under deployment/deployed in the U.S. and China, respectively, is the 1150 MW-electric AP1000 Generation III+ nuclear power plant. AP1000 is now a proven technology that is able to produce almost 10,000 GWh of clean energy per year with a plant lifetime that can be readily extended to 80 years and beyond. Before the fracking boom that led to the low price of natural gas, AP1000 was primed to be a major nuclear technology with over 20 units under operation by this decade. However, the availability of cheaper alternative energy sources along with First-Of-A-Kind (FOAK) cost experience and schedule delays with AP1000, particularly in the U.S., have led to only 2 plants being currently under construction at the Vogtle site in the U.S. For the energy sector, the Vogtle project has been a clear example of why nuclear energy is not competitive with alternative energy sources with a total price tag of $28 billion dollars as of July 2021 and rising for the two 1150 MWe plants (~$14+ billion for each reactor, inclusive of owner costs and financing)...