Link to the study - European Parliament - Europa

Policy Department D: Budgetary Affairs
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The last line in Table 3: Development in cost estimations for the 9 reactors (plus storage facility St.
Laurent) in million EUR normalizes the cost estimates for the reference year 2010 to make them more
comparable. As can be seen from these numbers the cost estimates are fairly stable over the years
and show no systematically accelerating trend.
The importance of careful and reliable costs estimation can be seen from the experiences made
during the real decommissioning works. So EDF noted in its internal audit report in March 2011 that
because of difficulties caused by several administrative processes (as mentioned above) the costs can
increase. Further, faster use of the budget for Chooz A than expected was reported.
The main cause for the above mentioned uncertainties is seen in CdC 2012 in the fact that the
approach used for the estimation by EDF consists of calculating cost brackets for all the parameters
across all the facilities where a probability of occurrence is assigned (as explained above). CdC 2012
recommends the use of uncertainty margins for costs, as there is always a remaining scope of
uncertainties because of lacking precedent experiences.
The cost estimation for all EDF reactors being currently in operation
The following overview of the costs estimations for the EDF fleet of 58 reactors demonstrates the
importance of the proper method used for these estimations, that should be interlinked with timely
preplanning of decommissioning works.
EDF defined basic characteristics influencing directly the costs estimations for the dismantling 8 of 58
reactors currently operated. All the reactors of the fleet are of the PWR type (pressurized water
reactors). Here, a duration of 40 years for operation and subsequent immediate dismantling were
assumed. The expenditure amounted to EUR 18,4 billion (price base 2010). This corresponds to the
equivalent of 19 % of the initial construction costs for the power plants concerned (EUR 96 billion in
2010, overnight costs + interim interest (CdC 2012)).
Costs for dismantling reactors in Germany, Belgium, Japan, UK, Sweden and USA were analysed and
applied to the EDF PWR fleet in operation. In Table 4, the summarization of this comparison is presented.
This demonstrates how costs range across countries and as a function of different estimation methods.
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The stages following final shutdown of a nuclear power plant through to its decommissioning
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