Abandonments of unfinished nuclear power plants: A study of the causes of technology rejection after adoption

A major feature of the last decade has been the systematic and continuous abandonments of large investments in nuclear power plants by electric utilities. This paper investigates the mix of financial, regulatory, and other causes associated with these abandonments by investor owned electric utilities. Construction cost escalation, the major force in Nuclear plant abandonments, appears to result from multiple joint causes whose individual effects are difficult to isolate. Discussion of construction cost escalation focuses on the causes of inaccurate projections, the timeliness of management's reaction in making abandonment decisions, and the impact of unforeseen external events. Failure to recognize and control construction cost escalation has resulted in a consensus that additional Nuclear plants are unlikely to be built in the near future.