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Legal status

Civilian nuclear power generation is currently prohibited in Australia. There is no lawful approval pathway for a civilian nuclear power reactor under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) s140A or the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act 1998 (Cth) s10, and New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania impose additional state-level bans.

Every Australian scenario in this suite is therefore a hypothetical “what-if” model. Nothing here represents that deployment in Australia is imminent, presently lawful, or an invitation to invest. See the disclaimers.

Calculator hub  /  Module 05

Calculator 05

Mining Site Total Cost of Ownership

Over a 20-year horizon, how does an independently benchmarked remote-mine diesel power cost compare with the Unity Battery cost figures Deployable Energy has stated?

Site and cost assumptions

5.0MW

85per cent

20years

Mine life is usually the binding constraint. A horizon longer than the remaining mine life is not a decision-relevant comparison.

0.65USD per AUD

A user planning assumption, not a sourced constant. It is not a forecast, and no view on future currency movements is expressed. The Unity Battery figures are stated in US dollars and must be converted before comparison.

Annual energy served

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Diesel case — cost over the horizon

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Unity Battery case — cost over the horizon company-stated, unverified

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Units required

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Unity Battery capital outlay company-stated

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Difference over the horizon

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Indicative crossover point

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Forward-looking illustration These outputs are forward-looking statements: scenario estimates built from the assumptions you have entered and the constants listed below. They are based on assumptions that may not prove correct and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results would differ materially. No representation or warranty is given as to the achievement of any figure shown. Outputs describe avoided cost, emissions or noise at a hypothetical operating site — they are not returns, yields, distributions or any measure of investment performance. Civilian nuclear power is not currently lawful in Australia, so this scenario could not be built today.

Cumulative cost over the horizon

Diesel case, independently benchmarked (band) Unity Battery case, company-stated and unverified

Excluded from both sides

  • Decommissioning, spent-fuel management, long-term waste liabilities and site remediation.
  • Licensing, regulatory approval, environmental assessment and community consultation costs — which in Australia currently have no lawful pathway at all for a civilian reactor.
  • Insurance, third-party liability cover and nuclear-specific security requirements.
  • Grid connection, distribution within the site, and balance-of-plant civil works.
  • Refuelling or core-replacement events, and any mid-life capital refit on either side.
  • Carbon costs, carbon value, taxes, duties, financing costs and inflation.
  • Diesel capital replacement cycles beyond the entered cost basis, and diesel price volatility over a 20-year horizon.
  • Redundancy provisioning: unit counts are calculated on load alone, with no N+1 allowance applied on either side.

Because material cost categories are excluded from both sides, this module is an orientation tool for framing a question, not a total cost of ownership study, a feasibility assessment, or a basis for any decision.

Method

The formulas, in full

Annual energy (MWh/yr) = Load (MW) × CapacityFactor × 8,760 Diesel annual cost (A$/yr) = Annual energy × DieselCost (A$/MWh) Units = ceil( Load (MW) ÷ 1 MWe per unit ) Unity capex (A$) = Units × US$10,000,000 ÷ FX Unity annual opex (A$/yr) = Units × US$350,000 ÷ FX Cumulative cost at year n = Capex + Σ annual cost, discounted if selected

Diesel side, default basis. A$240–450/MWh, the independent remote-mine diesel electricity benchmark (ECD Online citing AECOM analysis). This is the default because it is the most defensible published Australian figure available.

Project-derived sensitivity. A$800–1,110/MWh comes from project research and is materially higher than published Australian benchmarks. It is available only as an explicitly labelled opt-in sensitivity and is never the default. Selecting it does not make it a validated figure.

Unity Battery side. US$10 million per 1 MWe unit capital and US$350,000 per unit per year operating cost are Deployable Energy planning figures. They are company-stated and unverified. No independent engineering, cost or schedule review has been completed, and there is no operating unit anywhere from which to derive actual costs.

The crossover point is arithmetic on the entered assumptions. It is not a payback period, not a return, and not a projection.

Provenance

Constants and sources

General information only

This calculator provides general, illustrative information only about hypothetical energy-generation scenarios. It does not take into account your personal circumstances, objectives or financial situation, and does not constitute financial product advice, an offer of securities, or a recommendation to invest in Deployable Energy Fund Limited, Deployable Energy Limited, or any other entity. Figures are drawn from third-party Australian government, regulator and industry sources (cited on this page) and, where expressly badged, from Deployable Energy’s own unverified planning assumptions. They are provided for general educational and illustrative purposes only. The Unity Battery microreactor has not yet been deployed commercially, and civilian nuclear power generation is not currently permitted in Australia under the EPBC Act and the ARPANS Act (and, in several states, additional state legislation). Nothing on this page should be relied upon as a representation that deployment in Australia is imminent or currently lawful.

See the full disclaimers and important notices.