Determining the cost of implementing a nuclear energy policy is very important due to the high costs associated with nuclear programs. Such programs may be unattainable to certain countries due to the many requirements that ensure a safe and secure nuclear sector. The IAEA has a large number of publications that indicate the requirements for implementing nuclear energy sectors. By using these publications, a framework was developed costing each of the main sectors of a nuclear energy program. These sectors correspond to the sectors that the South African government proposed for its nuclear energy policy. The main sectors are: * Basic infrastructure development * Nuclear power plant (NPP) sector * Nuclear fuel cycle (NFC) sector * Industrial involvement An outline of the framework is attached as Appendix A. A more elaborative development of the framework is given in Chapter 2. The Government proposes the development of 20 GWe (Eskom Holdings Limited, 2010:3) of nuclear power over the next 20 to 25 years along with the development of the entire nuclear fuel cycle and an industrial base that will ensure that South Africa is independent of other countries and has the capability to develop nuclear power plants and associated technology. By applying the framework it was possible to estimate the costs of the different sectors. It was found by the author that the basic infrastructure and power plant sector will cost approximately R 889 billion (2008 Rand value), excluding financing costs. The fuel cycle sector is very sensitive to global resistance and will require considerable planning to ensure that international bodies and countries are satisfied with the local intention of pursuing fuel cycle implementation. To ensure that costs are minimized the implementation of the different fuel cycle steps is crucial and will depend on the rollout plan of the power plants and the local demand for fuel and the influence of security of fuel supply. To implement the entire front end and reprocessing step it was estimated that the cost will amount to approximately R 52,3 billion. The cost of implementing the industrial sector development was not determined, due to the many factors involved. The different requirements in the sector may be supplied by similar industries currently active in South Africa. Most of the current industries will require further accreditation and may have to increase capacity if South Africa is to become a global supplier of nuclear technology. Sources indicated that the different sectors will require trained personnel numbers in the region of 77 000 (direct jobs). The amount of indirect jobs that will be created will be in the regions of 300 000. Government therefore has a huge responsibility to ensure that training and education programs are developed that can supply the demand of trained personnel. The different industries involved should also ensure that the relevant personnel are trained in advance, to obtain the required accreditation and experience. The final outcome of the revised Integrated Resource Plan (IRP2) was not yet available when this dissertation was completed. The outcomes of the future nuclear programs may therefore be different from the extent of developments and investments estimated by this study. The cost of reactors and basic infrastructure will have to be scaled to the revised objectives while the costs of the fuel cycle may change considerably due to a possible decrease in local demand. These changes will affect the economy of scale on many of the sectors of development. The framework is generic and may be applied to different nuclear development programs and countries. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Nuclear Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Determining the cost of implementing a nuclear energy policy is very important due to the high costs associated with nuclear programs. Such programs may be unattainable to certain countries due to the many requirements that ensure a safe and secure nuclear sector. The IAEA has a large number of publications that indicate the requirements for implementing nuclear energy sectors. By using these publications, a framework was developed costing each of the main sectors of a nuclear energy program. These sectors correspond to the sectors that the South African government proposed for its nuclear energy policy. The main sectors are: * Basic infrastructure development * Nuclear power plant (NPP) sector * Nuclear fuel cycle (NFC) sector * Industrial involvement An outline of the framework is attached as Appendix A. A more elaborative development of the framework is given in Chapter 2. The Government proposes the development of 20 GWe (Eskom Holdings Limited, 2010:3) of nuclear power over the next 20 to 25 years along with the development of the entire nuclear fuel cycle and an industrial base that will ensure that South Africa is independent of other countries and has the capability to develop nuclear power plants and associated technology. By applying the framework it was possible to estimate the costs of the different sectors. It was found by the author that the basic infrastructure and power plant sector will cost approximately R 889 billion (2008 Rand value), excluding financing costs. The fuel cycle sector is very sensitive to global resistance and will require considerable planning to ensure that international bodies and countries are satisfied with the local intention of pursuing fuel cycle implementation. To ensure that costs are minimized the implementation of the different fuel cycle steps is crucial and will depend on the rollout plan of the power plants and the local demand for fuel and the influence of security of fuel supply. To implement the entire front end and reprocessing step it was estimated that the cost will amount to approximately R 52,3 billion. The cost of implementing the industrial sector development was not determined, due to the many factors involved. The different requirements in the sector may be supplied by similar industries currently active in South Africa. Most of the current industries will require further accreditation and may have to increase capacity if South Africa is to become a global supplier of nuclear technology. Sources indicated that the different sectors will require trained personnel numbers in the region of 77 000 (direct jobs). The amount of indirect jobs that will be created will be in the regions of 300 000. Government therefore has a huge responsibility to ensure that training and education programs are developed that can supply the demand of trained personnel. The different industries involved should also ensure that the relevant personnel are trained in advance, to obtain the required accreditation and experience. The final outcome of the revised Integrated Resource Plan (IRP2) was not yet available when this dissertation was completed. The outcomes of the future nuclear programs may therefore be different from the extent of developments and investments estimated by this study. The cost of reactors and basic infrastructure will have to be scaled to the revised objectives while the costs of the fuel cycle may change considerably due to a possible decrease in local demand. These changes will affect the economy of scale on many of the sectors of development. The framework is generic and may be applied to different nuclear development programs and countries. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Nuclear Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Good conceptual cost estimates is one of the most important factors affecting the project success. Investment decisions taken and budget preparations are performed from the results of the conceptual estimates. Also, the most difficult cost estimation is the early estimates where there is very limited information. This thesis provides a model for the cost estimation of the housing projects at the conceptual stage, considering not only the total area of the construction, but also considering fractional areas, as kitchen area, bathroom area, living room area and etc. Moreover, model outputs a range of costs considering quality of the construction instead of a point estimate which allows investors to see the possible costs of the project by their choice of luxury.

Αναμφισβήτητα, τις τελευταίες δεκαετίες έχουν λάβει χώρα σημαντικές αλλαγές στο επιχειρησιακό περιβάλλον σε παγκόσμια κλίμακα, οι οποίες έχουν μεταβάλλει ριζικά τη δομή του. Παραδείγματα τέτοιων αλλαγών αποτελούν η εισαγωγή ευέλικτων συστημάτων παραγωγής, η εντατικοποίηση και η αυτοματοποίηση των παραγωγικών διαδικασιών, η αύξηση των γενικών εξόδων τόσο ως ποσό όσο και ως ποσοστό επί του συνολικού κόστους των προϊόντων, η μείωση του κόστους άμεσης εργασίας (κυρίως στη βιομηχανία ) ως ποσοστό του κόστους παραγωγής, η αύξηση της ποικιλίας προϊόντων που παράγονται σε μικρές ποσότητες και με διαφορετικές προδιαγραφές, η αύξηση του ρυθμού εισαγωγής νέων προϊόντων στην αγορά τα οποία έχουν μικρό κύκλο ζωής, η υιοθέτηση πελατοκεντρικού προσανατολισμού κ.α. Οι παραπάνω αλλαγές σε συνδυασμό με την αύξηση της έντασης του ανταγωνισμού και της συνεπακόλουθης μείωσης των περιθωρίων κέρδους, έχουν ανάγει σε πηγή ανταγωνιστικού πλεονεκτήματος την αποτελεσματική παρακολούθηση και, κυρίως, διοίκηση τους κόστους των ξενοδοχειακών επιχειρήσεων. Για τη λήψη ορθών επιχειρηματικών αποφάσεων απαιτείται ορθή πληροφόρηση, η οποία, σε μεγάλο βαθμό, στηρίζεται στα αριθμητικά μεγέθη που παράγει η κοστολογική οργάνωση των ξενοδοχειακών επιχειρήσεων. Εξάλλου, ο σωστός προγραμματισμός και η άσκηση της οικονομικής πολιτικής από το Κράτος απαιτεί επίσης σωστή και αντικειμενική πληροφόρηση, που στηρίζεται τα μέγιστα στα μεγέθη του κόστους. Η Κοστολόγηση είναι, δηλαδή, η διαδικασία που αριθμοποιεί τη ζωή των οικονομικών μονάδων, συγκεντρώνει, αναλύει, επεξεργάζεται, συσχετίζει τα αριθμητικά μεγέθη τα οποία συνοψίζει και παρουσιάζει καταλλήλως ώστε να είναι αξιοποιήσιμα από τους λήπτες των επιχειρηματικών αποφάσεων. Για να είναι όμως τα μεγέθη του κόστους αξιοποιήσιμα θα πρέπει, εκτός των άλλων, να τυγχάνουν μιας τέτοιας επεξεργασίας, κατάταξης και συσχετισμών ώστε να διασφαλίζεται η μέσω αυτών και δι’ αυτών κατάρτιση ορθών οικονομικών εκθέσεων και γενικά η άσκηση ελέγχου για την ορθότητα κάθε επιχειρηματικής απόφασης. Η σημαντικότητα του εργαλείου της κοστολόγησης για την παροχή αξιόπιστων πληροφοριών στη διοίκηση της ξενοδοχειακής επιχείρησης, για τη λήψη αποφάσεων αποτέλεσε έναυσμα για τη διενέργεια της παρούσας μελέτης η οποία αναφέρεται σε ένα από τα πλέον σύγχρονα πεδία έρευνας και ανάπτυξης της Λογιστικής Επιστήμης που συνδέεται με τη χρησιμοποίηση επιστημονικών μεθόδων, αρχών και κανόνων, στη Διοίκηση των επιχειρήσεων και ιδιαίτερα των ξενοδοχειακών. Όπως είναι γνωστό, η διοίκηση των επιχειρήσεων, πραγματοποιείται μέσω των λαμβανόμενων καθημερινά επιχειρηματικών αποφάσεων από τους υπεύθυνους φορείς εξουσίας – αρμοδιότητας και ευθύνης – που βρίσκονται σε όλα τα επίπεδα της Διοικητικής πυραμίδας. Αναλυτικότερα, οι επιμέρους στόχοι της παρούσας μελέτης είναι οι ακόλουθοι: Μέσα από την ανάλυση και την εμπειρική έρευνα των ξενοδοχείων να προκύψει μια πολιτική λογιστικής και κοστολογικής οργάνωσης αυτών, επισήμανση της σημασίας και του μεγέθους της τουριστικής ανάπτυξης της Ελλάδας, αναφορά στον εγχώριο και διεθνή ανταγωνισμό, παρουσίαση της κοστολογικής οργάνωσης των ξενοδοχείων και ανάλυση των κοστολογικών συστημάτων που χρησιμοποιούνται από αυτά, λαμβάνοντας υπόψη τις ιδιαιτερότητες του κλάδου των ξενοδοχειακών επιχειρήσεων που έχουν αντίκτυπο στην κοστολόγηση (τιμολόγηση, εποχικότητα, κόστος αδράνειας- υπολειτουργίας, value added, non value added δαπάνες, κ.λπ.). Η παρούσα διπλωματική μελέτη αποτελείται από οκτώ (8) κεφάλαια στα οποία πραγματεύονται τα ακόλουθα : Στο Κεφάλαιο 1 αναλύεται η δομή του ξενοδοχειακού συστήματος, στο Κεφάλαιο 2 αναλύεται η δομή του Τουριστικού συστήματος, στο Κεφάλαιο 3 αξιολογείται και παρουσιάζεται η οργάνωση του κόστους ως μεταβλητής που στηρίζει απαραιτήτως κάθε επιχειρηματική απόφαση, στο Κεφάλαιο 4 παρουσιάζεται η κοστολογική οργάνωση των ξενοδοχειακών επιχειρήσεων, στο Κεφάλαιο 5 αναλύεται ένα από τα σημαντικότερα είδη Κοστολόγησης, η Κοστολόγηση ανά δραστηριότητα, στο Κεφάλαιο 6 παρουσιάζονται στατιστικά στοιχεία για την χρηματοοικονομική ανάλυση του κλάδου των ξενοδοχειακών μονάδων, στο Κεφάλαιο 7 παρουσιάζεται η κοστολογική ανάλυση του κλάδου και στο Κεφάλαιο 8 παρουσιάζονται τα βασικά συμπεράσματα της μελέτης καθώς και προτάσεις βελτίωσης της εφαρμογής της κοστολόγησης στην εποχή μας. / Undeniably, the last decades have taken place important changes in the operational environment in world scale, that have alter radically his structure. Examples of such changes constitute the import of flexible systems of production, the intensifying and the automation of productive processes, the increase of general expenses so much as sum what as percentage on the total cost of products, the reduction of cost of direct work (mainly in the industry) as percentage of cost of production, the increase of variety of products that is produced in small quantities and with different specifications, the increase of rhythm of import of new products in the market which have small circle of life, the adoption of orientation to the customers, etc. The above changes in combination with the increase of intensity of competition and subsequent reduction of margins of profit, have reduced in source of competitive advantage the effective follow-up and, mainly, their administration of cost of hotel enterprises. For the decision-making equitable enterprising is required equitable information, which, to a great degree, is supported in the numerical sizes that produces the cost estimating organization of hotel enterprises. Moreover, the correct planning and the exercise of economic policy from the State require also correct and objective information that supports biggest in sizes of cost. The cost accounting is, that is to say, the process that puts in a line the life of economic units, assembles, analyzes, processes, connects the numerical sizes which it summarizes and presents suitably so that they are exploitable from the recipients of enterprising decisions. In order to be the sizes of cost exploitable it will be supposed, except the other, that they enjoy a such treatment, classification and correlations so that is ensured via these and of these training of equitable economic reports and in general the exercise of control on the correctness of each enterprising decision. The importance of tool of cost accounting for the benefit of reliable information in the administration of hotel enterprise, for the decision-making constituted spark for the realization of present study which is reported in one of the most modern fields of research and growth of Accountant Science that is connected with the utilization of scientific methods, values and rules, in the Administration of enterprises and particularly of hotels. As it is known, the administration of enterprises, it is realized via the received daily enterprising decisions by the responsible institutions of power- competence and responsibility - that they are found in all levels of Administrative pyramid. More analytically, the individual objectives of present study are the followings: Through the analysis and the empiric research of hotels result a policy accountant and cost estimating organization of these, pointing out of importance and size of tourist growth of Greece, report in the domestic and international competition, presentation of cost estimating organization of hotels and analysis of cost estimating systems that is used by them, taking into consideration his particularities of branch of hotel enterprises that have impact in the cost accounting (pricing, cost of inactivity, value added, non value added expenses, etc.). The present diplomatic study is constituted from eight (8) capitals in which deal with following: In Capital 1 it is analyzed the structure of hotel system, in Capital 2 it is analyzed the structure of Tourist system, in Capital 3 it is evaluated and presents itself the organization of cost as variable that supports essentially each enterprising decision, in Capital 4 it is presented the cost estimating organization of hotel enterprises, in Capital 5 it is analyzed one of the most important types of Cost accounting, the Cost accounting per activity, in Capital 6 they are presented statistical elements for the financing analysis of branch of hotel units, in Capital 7 it is presented the cost estimating analysis of branch and in Capital 8 they are presented the basic conclusions of study as well as proposals of improvement of application of cost accounting in our period of time.

Traditional cost-accounting approaches have served manufacturers well over a long period, but due to the changing nature of the modern manufacturing environment shortcomings have resulted and are no longer regarded as suitable (Gagne & Discenza 1993: 68). Similarly, Monden and Lee (1993: 22) state that many practitioners and academicians have questioned the effectiveness of standard cost systems, which have been used as the primary cost control measure for the last several decades. Cooper and Slagmulder (1997: 2) point out that in contrast to the conventional cost management techniques, target costing adopts a feed-forward approach. The objective of target costing is to design costs out of products, and not to find ways of eliminating costs after the products enter production. Few firms can afford to ignore such a powerful mechanism to increase profits in today’s highly competitive environment.

This study dissertation deals with the planning and implementation of construction projects. The theoretical part gives the definition of project management structures, describes the compilation prices of construction work, time models of construction and construction tender documents. In the practical part is the description of the selected building sites, then the description deals with the alternative evalualing application of construction provided by budget program and planning documents. The aim is to evaluate the difference between the actual and alternative progress construction.

The costs of information technology (IT) in large multinational companies (MNCs) often constitute a significant portion of the company’s total yearly turnover. IT departments are on one hand expected to return value to business, but are on the other hand often prone to cost reductions. Thus, it is not unusual that IT management chooses to focus on cost cutting rather than cost control in order to meet the company’s financial targets. Understanding cost drivers in IT is not always evident, making it difficult for managers to know what performance indicators that should be tracked. This study addresses the issue of cost control and performance measurement in IT departments, in the form of a case study carried out at the IT department of a large Swedish MNC in the telecommunications industry. The case company is divided into two parts: Enterprise and Engineering, where Enterprise provides the organization with IT in form of printers, personal computers, applications, IT support and communication services through network infrastructure and voice. Engineering provides research and development units with software development infrastructure and testing environments for products. The testing environments comprise of both software testing through simulations and hardware testing in physical labs. By carrying out interviews with managers and key people responsible for large budget items, 130 cost drivers were identified. After reducing recurring cost drivers and merging similar ones, the cost drivers were filtered according to quantifyability. In a second step, performance indicators were developed using the SMART model and then scored with respect to cost impact and ease of implementation. This resulted in a recommendation of 49 performance indicators to be tracked across the entire IT department. A sample of recommended performance indicators is total cost of wages / number of employees, number of virtualized servers / total number of servers and amount of video related traffic / total capacity of bandwidth. The ambition of this study is to provide a holistic way of controlling cost drivers through prioritized performance indicators. Even though this case is specific to an IT department, the approach in this research may well be applied in other departments and industries. / Kostnaderna för informationsteknologi (IT) i stora multinationella företag utgör ofta en betydande del av företagets totala årliga omsättning. Samtidigt som IT-organisationer förväntas leverera värde till företaget, utsätts de även för kostnadsnedskärningar. Därför är det inte ovanligt att IT-ledningen väljer att fokusera på kostnadsbesparingar, snarare än kostnadskontroll, för att nå bolagets finansiella mål. Det är inte alltid enkelt att förstå vad som driver kostnader i en IT-organisation, vilket försvårar besluten om vilka nyckeltal som IT-ledningen bör styra efter. Denna studie tar upp frågan om kostnadskontroll och prestationsmätning i IT-organisationer i form av en fallstudie, som genomförts på IT-avdelningen på ett stort svenskt multinationellt bolag i telekommunikationsbranschen. Organisationen kan delas in i Enterprise och Engineering, där Enterprise tillhandahåller IT i form av skrivare, persondatorer, applikationer, IT support och kommunikationstjänster genom nätinfrastruktur och taltjänster. Engineering tillhandahåller infrastruktur för mjukvaruutveckling och en miljö för testning av produkter för forsknings- och utvecklingsenheter. Testmiljön består av både mjukvarutestning i form av simuleringar samt tester av hårdvara i fysiska laboratorier. Med utgångspunkt i intervjuer med chefer och andra nyckelpersoner ansvariga för stora budgetposter, identifierades 130 kostnadsdrivare inom IT-avdelningen. Efter reduktion av återkommande kostnadsdrivare och sammanslagning av liknande drivare, filtrerades kostnadsdrivarna med aveseende på kvantifierbarhet. Kostnadsdrivare som var kvantifierbara översattes sedan till nyckeltal med hjälp av SMART-modellen. I efterföljande steg  poängsattes nyckeltalen med avseende på kostnadseffekt och möjligheten för implementering. Detta resulterade i en rekommendation av 49 nyckeltal för effektiv kostnadskontroll i hela organisationen. Ett urval av rekommenderade nyckeltal är totala lönekostnaden / antal anställda, antal virtualiserade servrar / totala antalet servrar samt mängden videorelaterad datatrafik / totala bandbreddskapaciteten. Ambitionen med denna studie är att på ett ett holistiskt sätt kontrollera kostnadsdrivare, genom prioritering av nyckeltal. Även om denna fallstudie specifikt riktar sig mot IT-avdelningar, anser författarna att tillvägagångssättet även kan tillämpas på andra avdelningar och branscher.

Switching costs are unobserved costs for the consumer when switching between two functionally identical products or services. These costs can take both monetary and non- monetary values, which makes them hard to estimate. The purpose of this study is to empirically estimate switching costs on the Swedish market for electricity for private consumers, and also review two methods to identify which one more suitable for the purpose. Shy’s (2002) method uses prices and market shares to estimate the costs, and Salies’ (2012) method is an extension of Shy’s method, that lifts two major limitations. Electricity providers with over 1 percent market share have been included. For each provider, prices for the three most used contract types have been gathered and used in the estimation. Prices have been limited to households with energy usage of 2 000 kWh per year. Switching costs have been estimated to between 50 – 95 percent of the yearly costs for electricity. The switching costs are higher when switching from a big firm to a smaller, than the other way around. This could indicate that customers become involuntarily locked-in to bigger firms because of the switching costs, giving bigger firms stronger market positions.

For any integer k≥0, a set of vertices S of a graph G=(V,E) is k-cost-effective if for every v∈S,|N(v)∩(V∖S)|≥|N(v)∩S|+k. In this paper we study the minimum cardinality of a maximal k-cost-effective set and the maximum cardinality of a k-cost-effective set. We obtain Gallai-type results involving the k-cost-effective and global k-offensive alliance parameters, and we provide bounds on the maximum k-cost-effective number. Finally, we consider k-cost-effective sets that are also dominating. We show that computing the k-cost-effective domination number is NP-complete for bipartite graphs. Moreover, we note that not all trees have a k-cost-effective dominating set and give a constructive characterization of those that do.

Cost overrun is prevalent in the construction industry. Usually, an owner sets a budget at the preliminary phase of a project which changes over time. Past studies are focused on analyzing the cost growth of design-bid-build projects during construction. Limited efforts have been made to analyze details of projects delivered with the Construction Manager General Contractor (CM/GC) method. This study tracks and analyzes the construction cost variation of a project from the conceptual phase to the design completion phase. The analysis is presented with a case study of a new stadium construction project. It identifies that the changes in the scope and design of the project due to the change in available budget were a major reason for variation in the cost estimates over time. Further, this study identifies a) trades with the highest variation in subcontractors’ bids, b) trades that were most overestimated, and c) trades that were most underestimated. The findings of this study is expected to aid owners, designers, and contractors of future projects in improving the preparation, planning, and estimating of future projects; reducing cost variation within trades; and optimizing the amount of contingency required to ensure the successful completion of similar projects.