ORNL-TM-7207 - the Molten Salt Energy Technologies Web Site

E2 7
There are no detailed estimates of the capital or operating costs of
the equipment for W-H2 treatment to remove (I2- from the small batches of
6
fuel. For this assessment, we assumed that the capital cost is $15 x 10
and that its operation costs $500,00O/year.
As a consequence of the assumptions and the estimates described, the
cost of producing 6.57 x 10’ kmjyear (operation at 75% plant factor) ap-
parently averages $34,650,000, and the resulting fuel cycle cost is about
5.3 mills/krn.
Note that, if the price of 7Li were lowered by five-fold [to SO.4O/g
($272/lb)l, the resulting fuel cycle cost for the once-through DMSR would
fall to sllightby below 4 mills/kkJh.
5.3.5 Net power cost
Because the return on the plant capital investment woslPd be a sub-
stantial factor in the net cost of power from a DMSR and because a number
of terms that would be important in a commercia% plant were omitted in de-
veloping the capital cost estimate, projecting a potential net cost for
DMSR power is not appropriate.
Substantially more design and development
would be required to support a reasonably reliable estimate. However, the
previous discussions suggest that the cost of power from a BMSR not
be greatly different than that from other nuclear systems.
5.4 Licensing
Mthough two experimental MSRs have been built and operated in the
United States under government ownership, none has ever been subjected to
formal licensing or even detailed review by the NRC. As a consequence,
the question of lieensability of MSRs remains open; the NRC has not yet
identified the major licensing issues and the concept has not been eon-
sidered by various public interest organizations that are often involved
in nuclear plant licensing procedures. Further, the licensing experience
of solid-fueled reactors can be used as only a general guide because of
significant fundamental differences between those systems and MSB. Pre-
sumably, MSRs would be required to comply with the intents, rather than