Investment decisions under uncertainties: A case of nuclear power plants

This thesis discusses the role of flexibility of decisions when investing in projects that are affected by economic uncertainties. It uses the theory of real options to value such investment decisions. The thesis focuses on investment decisions related to nuclear power plants, which usually are affected by several sources of economic uncertainties. It also introduces a new Monte Carlo based option pricing method, called the Stochastic Grid Bundling Method (SGBM). SGBM can be used to efficiently price exotic financial options with early exercise features, as well as real options. Investment questions, such as, under what conditions would small modular reactors would be - from an economic perspective - a better choice, when compared to large nuclear power plants; are then addressed in the thesis