SMR Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) Calculator
Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) rolls a plant's upfront capital, ongoing fuel and operating costs, and financing into a single cost per megawatt-hour — the standard way to compare the cost of generating electricity across technologies. This calculator applies that framework to a small modular reactor (SMR), taking plant capacity, overnight capital cost, capacity factor, fuel + O&M cost, discount rate, and plant life, then reporting the total overnight capital cost, the annualized capital cost (via a capital recovery factor), the annual generation, and the resulting LCOE. It pairs naturally with our Nuclear Fuel Cost Calculator for the fuel-cost side of nuclear economics and our Nuclear Plant Capacity Factor & Output Calculator for the generation side of the same plant.
Most SMR designs range from 50-470 MWe per module; several developers combine multiple modules for larger total plant capacity.
Published 2025-2026 estimates span a wide range -- roughly $3,985-4,844/kW for advanced techno-economic projections up to $8,500-10,500/kW for current first-of-a-kind (FOAK) projects. NuScale's 12-module VOYGR plant (684 MWe) is a real-world anchor at approximately $4,385/kW.
SMRs are projected to achieve capacity factors similar to large nuclear plants, commonly cited around 90-93%+.
Nuclear fuel itself is cheap, commonly cited at $5-7/MWh; combined with operations and maintenance, total non-capital costs commonly run $15-25/MWh.
The cost of capital used to annualize the upfront investment. Lower-cost financing (government-backed loans, utility balance sheets) meaningfully reduces LCOE for capital-intensive projects like nuclear.
40 years is a standard initial U.S. nuclear operating license term, often extended to 60-80 years.
plant capacity (MW) × 1000 × overnight capital cost ($/kW)
total overnight capital cost ($) × capital recovery factor
plant capacity (MW) × 8760 × (capacity factor (%) ÷ 100)
total annual cost ($) ÷ annual generation (MWh/year)
SMR cost estimates vary enormously across sources and are still evolving as first projects reach construction. This is a simplified, illustrative LCOE calculation -- actual project economics depend heavily on financing structure, construction timeline and overruns, site-specific costs, and whether a project benefits from first-of-a-kind or nth-of-a-kind (NOAK) learning curve savings.
Results update live as you type. For planning and field-check estimates — always verify against applicable standards and equipment ratings.
How we calculate this →SMR cost estimates cluster into two very different stories: first-of-a-kind (FOAK) projects have run $80-180/MWh, while manufacturers project nth-of-a-kind (NOAK) costs could fall to $50-100/MWh once serial factory production replaces custom on-site construction. NuScale's real 12-module VOYGR project offers a useful anchor at roughly $4,385/kW overnight cost -- squarely within the range this calculator uses. Unlike natural gas, where fuel often makes up 60-70% of LCOE, nuclear's fuel cost is nearly irrelevant to the total -- it's construction cost and financing that determine whether SMR economics actually work.
How SMR LCOE is calculated
This calculator estimates the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for a small modular reactor by annualizing its upfront capital cost with a capital recovery factor, adding annual fuel + O&M cost, and dividing the total annual cost by annual generation. Four quantities tie the calculation together.
Total Overnight Capital Cost ($) = Plant Capacity (MW) × 1000 × Overnight Capital Cost ($/kW). Converting the plant capacity from megawatts to kilowatts (× 1000) and multiplying by the overnight capital cost per kW gives the total upfront construction cost, expressed in present-day dollars without financing costs (which are introduced separately through the discount rate). At the defaults (300 MW and $5,000/kW), that is 300 × 1000 × $5,000 = $1,500,000,000.
Annualized Capital Cost ($/year) = Total Overnight Capital Cost ($) × Capital Recovery Factor, where Capital Recovery Factor = (r × (1 + r)^n) ÷ ((1 + r)^n − 1), r is the discount rate as a decimal, and n is the plant life in years. The capital recovery factor converts a lump-sum upfront investment into an equal annual payment over the plant's life at the given discount rate — the standard engineering-economics way to spread capital cost across the years a plant actually generates. At the defaults (8% discount rate, 40-year life), the capital recovery factor is (0.08 × 1.08^40) ÷ (1.08^40 − 1) = 0.0839, so the annualized capital cost is $1,500,000,000 × 0.0839 = $125,792,400/year.
Annual Generation (MWh/year) = Plant Capacity (MW) × 8760 × (Capacity Factor (%) ÷ 100). Multiplying the nameplate capacity by the 8,760 hours in a year gives the theoretical maximum energy if the plant ran at full output continuously; the capacity factor converts that into real annual production. At the defaults (300 MW and 93% capacity factor), that is 300 × 8760 × 0.93 = 2,444,040 MWh/year.
LCOE ($/MWh) = Total Annual Cost ($) ÷ Annual Generation (MWh/year), where Total Annual Cost ($) = Annualized Capital Cost ($/year) + Annual Fuel + O&M Cost ($), and Annual Fuel + O&M Cost ($) = Annual Generation (MWh/year) × Fuel + O&M Cost ($/MWh). At the defaults, annual fuel + O&M is 2,444,040 × $20 = $48,880,800, total annual cost is $125,792,400 + $48,880,800 = $174,673,200, and LCOE is $174,673,200 ÷ 2,444,040 = $71.47/MWh.
Two notes on the model. First, this is a simplified real-cost LCOE that annualizes capital with a capital recovery factor rather than discounting every year's cash flow individually; it excludes construction-period financing, output degradation, decommissioning reserves, and spent-fuel management, all of which real project finance models include. Second, the result is dominated by capital cost and the discount rate — nuclear fuel at $5-7/MWh is a tiny share of the total, which is why financing terms and construction cost overruns matter far more to SMR economics than fuel markets. Data sources: SMR capital cost estimates from DOE (Department of Energy) SMR program, NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) techno-economic analyses, and vendor technical specifications; NuScale VOYGR project cost from NuScale technical filings and DOE documentation; FOAK vs. NOAK cost projections from EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) and industry analyses; nuclear LCOE cost structure from EIA (Energy Information Administration) and NREL; utility-scale solar, wind, and natural gas LCOE benchmarks from EIA and NREL; nuclear fuel cost from EIA and World Nuclear Association. Verification: with defaults (300 MW, $5,000/kW, 93% CF, $20/MWh fuel+O&M, 8%, 40 years), Total Overnight Capital Cost = $1,500,000,000, Annualized Capital Cost = $125,792,400/year, Annual Generation = 2,444,040 MWh/year, LCOE = $71.47/MWh.