Nuclear power plants alternative sitings: A literature review and research gaps

Nuclear energy is a major part of power generation mix of many countries in the world. More than 430 nuclear power plants (NPPs) are operating and spreading all over the inhabited land. Although there were only a few NPPs accidents, social and environmental impacts were too high. These impacts have made the nuclear power safety a controversial issue. In order to enhance NPPs safety, one suggested solution was to build NPPs in different sitings than the land-based. Offshore and underground were the two sitings that have been proposed in the literature. Studies have shown that these two sitings have the potential to improve safety measures of NPPs. In spite the large number of published papers and the extensive studies of the topic, there is almost no single study that relatively evaluates the three sitings at once. This paper represents a review of what has been done in the literature of NPPs alternative sitings in terms of technologies, characteristics, applications, and methods used to manage and evaluate the siting process. In addition, this paper identifies the literature gaps and underlines the need of developing a holistic systematic decision model. A decision model to evaluate NPPs alternative sitings is proposed.