mheslep said:
If we credit the licensing, regulatory and legal challenge environment for pushing the concept to operation period to ten years, the construction period from 3 to 7 years (as detailed in the Case charts in the above source), we see that the resulting extended periods are responsible for a large fraction of overall cost, in part due to the long term financing required.
The cost of licensing is somewhat difficult to allocate to a specific unit, except for the unit specific application.
A new reactor design, e.g., AP1000, EPR, ABWR is certified (licensed) by the NRC. The vendor and maybe utilities in a user/affinity group bear the cost (it's basically R&D overhead). The DOE may kick in some money. The NSSS wants to recoup that expense ASAP.
Then there is the specific ESP (site specific) and COL (unit specific). Those are borne by the utility.
From what I've seen, the cost of steel, concrete and energy has driven up the cost of materials, and that has contributed to a substantial increase in the cost of plants. Of course, labor costs are considerable too.
It is hoped that new plants will be built in about 5 years or 60 months, but we've already seen problems with EPR in France and Finland. The cost of the twin ABWRs at STNP has risen dramatically, and AFAIK now stands at around $14 billion or $7B/unit, up from about $10B or $5B/unit, which was up from earlier estimates.
Vogtle 3&4 are on track - but time will tell. Other potential units, Levy 1&2, have been deferred based on cost.
Progress ups Levy nuclear plant costs, delays start (May 6, 2010)
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0611303620100506
Levy to cost $17.2 billion to $22.5 billion
That's not going to fly.