1. An investment consortium is considering financing a new nuclear power plant. The plant is estimated to have a capacity of 1,000 megawatts and a capital cost of $4.0 billion. The plant has a service life of 30 years and a fixed operating cost of $100 per year.
2. The utility plans to use the nuclear plant to satisfy its base electric load, so it will be operating most of the time. Based on experience at other nuclear plants, the utility expects a 70 percent load factor. (The load factor is the average generation as a percentage of capacity.)
a. What is the expected annual amount of electricity that the plant will generate, in megawatt-hours?
b. What is the expected levelized cost of power, in dollars per megawatt-hour?