What is First of a Kind (FOAK)?

The first commercial unit of a new nuclear reactor design to be built, carrying the full burden of first-build costs including design finalization, regulatory licensing, supply chain development, and construction learning.

What category does First of a Kind (FOAK) belong to?

First of a Kind (FOAK) is a economics concept in nuclear energy and SMR technology.

First of a Kind (FOAK) — Nuclear & SMR Glossary

First of a Kind (FOAK) refers to the initial commercial deployment of a new nuclear reactor design, encompassing all the one-time costs and risks that are unique to building something that has never been built before at commercial scale. FOAK costs include detailed engineering completion, NRC licensing fees and review expenses, first-time procurement of specialized components, establishment of new supply chains, construction workforce training, quality assurance program development, and the inevitable schedule extensions that accompany first-build construction. These costs are substantially higher than those of subsequent units, as they cannot benefit from manufacturing learning curves, standardized construction procedures, or established supplier relationships.

The nuclear industry's FOAK challenge is well illustrated by recent history. NuScale's Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP) in Idaho was cancelled in November 2023 when estimated costs escalated from approximately $58/MWh to over $89/MWh, driven by FOAK construction cost increases and rising interest rates. This cancellation underscored the difficulty of financing FOAK nuclear projects without substantial risk mitigation. The U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) was created specifically to address the FOAK cost barrier, providing up to $2 billion in cost-sharing for TerraPower's Natrium plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming and up to $1.2 billion for X-energy's Xe-100 deployment. Holtec International received a $400 million DOE "Tier 1 First Mover Award" for its SMR-300 pioneer program at the Palisades site.

The FOAK-to-NOAK transition is the critical inflection point in the economics of any new reactor technology. OPG's BWRX-300 at Darlington, with a CAD $3 billion investment commitment, is explicitly positioned as the FOAK reference plant for GE-Hitachi's design, with the expectation that subsequent units at Darlington and other sites will benefit from the construction experience, workforce development, and supply chain maturation achieved on the first unit. Kairos Power's Hermes demonstration reactor in Oak Ridge is a non-power FOAK that allows the company to validate construction techniques, regulatory processes, and operational procedures before committing to commercial-scale FOAK units under the Google PPA. The industry's collective bet is that FOAK costs of $100-150/MWh or higher can be driven down to $50-70/MWh at NOAK scale through factory fabrication, modular construction, and fleet deployment.