Nuclear Energy Orderbooks 101: Enabling Cost-Effective Nuclear Deployment in Europe

The document advocates for the use of nuclear energy orderbooks in Europe to avoid the inefficiencies of fragmented deployment. It explains that by shifting from design evolution to design standardisation and serial replication, the EU can leverage 'learning by doing' effects to lower average unit costs, strengthen supply chains, and overcome regulatory and financing barriers.

• EU Member States intend to deploy a minimum of 60 GW of new nuclear capacity by 2050 to support energy security and climate goals, but face risks of fragmented rollout including duplicated efforts, project delays, and spiralling costs.
• A nuclear energy orderbook, defined as a series of standardised and repetitive builds often grouped at a few locations, can reduce costs, accelerate timelines, and improve workforce and supply chain capacity.
• Nuclear construction has historically failed to follow the 'learning by doing' cost reductions seen in aviation or solar panels due to a preference for design evolution over standardisation, adversarial project management, and underinvestment in construction-process optimisation.
• Coordinated nuclear technology orders lead to technology homogeneity, which improves learning rates, increases investor confidence through scaling efficiencies, and creates a more mature nuclear ecosystem compared to uncoordinated deployment.
• The implementation of orderbooks can help the EU overcome specific deployment barriers, including financing and investment hurdles, workforce and supply chain limitations, fragmented regulatory frameworks, and a lack of durable supportive policy.

APA

Clean Air Task Force (n.d.). Nuclear Energy Orderbooks 101: Enabling Cost-Effective Nuclear Deployment in Europe. https://www.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/CATF_NuclearEnergyOrderbooks101.pdf

Chicago

Clean Air Task Force. Nuclear Energy Orderbooks 101: Enabling Cost-Effective Nuclear Deployment in Europe. n.d. https://www.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/CATF_NuclearEnergyOrderbooks101.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Clean Air Task Force |title=Nuclear Energy Orderbooks 101: Enabling Cost-Effective Nuclear Deployment in Europe |url=https://www.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/CATF_NuclearEnergyOrderbooks101.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{cleanairtaskforcendnuclear, author = {{Clean Air Task Force}}, title = {{Nuclear Energy Orderbooks 101: Enabling Cost-Effective Nuclear Deployment in Europe}}, institution = {Clean Air Task Force}, url = {https://www.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/CATF_NuclearEnergyOrderbooks101.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }