4. Economic aspects of the cycle

Nuclear power generation benefits from low fuel costs, compared with high capital expenditure per unit of installed capacity. The production cost of nuclear power is not very sensitive to the price of natural uranium.

All fuel cycle operations account for less than 30% of operating costs and around 10% of the production cost of nuclear kWh, according to the Cour des Comptes report, i.e. less than €6/MWh. The upstream part of the cycle (uranium, conversion, enrichment, manufacture of fuel assemblies) represents around 80% of fuel costs, and the downstream part of the cycle (processing and waste management) around 20%.