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Every year, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) puts out a set of technology-specific cost and performance parameters for electricity generation. Now in its 10th year, the Electricity Annual Technology Baseline (ATB) has nearly 100,000 users from 144 countries, according to NREL. Utility planners and grid operators who look to the ATB to assess their investment options in a changing market require complete and accurate information and will be glad to know that the 2024 Electricity ATB, released June 24, includes—for the first time—a range of data on nuclear energy.

While previous ATBs included nuclear data based on single-point estimates from the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook, the 2024 version includes detailed cost information on two representative reactor sizes: large (1,000 MWe) and small (300 MWe) over a 20-year span from 2030 to 2050. The data is based on Meta-Analysis of Advanced Nuclear Reactor Cost Estimations, a report from Idaho National Laboratory’s Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN).