Cost saving opportunities in emergency planning at nuclear power plants - 18819
This paper identifies generalized offsite emergency planning costs for 2014 covering twenty different commercial nuclear plant locations in the U.S. This information was analyzed to quantify the potential cost savings associated with reduction in offsite emergency planning zone size as a function of sixteen offsite emergency planning standards contained in 10 CFR 50.47(b). Mean annual operating and maintenance costs and startup costs for a typical offsite nuclear power plant emergency planning program were $2.25 M and $10 M, respectively. However, if a reactor design technical basis were developed that allowed for a reduction in offsite plume emergency planning zone (EPZ) size from the nominal 10 mile standard currently used, collocation of that EPZ with the site plant boundary could produce programmatic savings in excess of 90% over a typical 40 year plant life. Lesser, but still potentially significant savings, are possible if the plume EPZ were resized to five and two miles. Negligible potential cost savings were identified with reductions in the ingestion pathway EPZ size which has been typically set at 50 miles. (authors)