DUPIC fuel cycle

In the nominal DUPIC fuel cycle, spent PWR fuel, having a nominal burnup of 35 MW d/kg HE, would be processed into CANDU fuel. An additional burnup of >15 MW d/kg HE would then be obtained through irradiation in CANDU. 

The DUPIC fuel cycle offers several benefits to a country that has PWRs and CANDU reactors including... 

At the heart of the reference DUPIC fuel cycle is the OREOX process. During this dry process, uranium from spent PWR fuel is sequentially oxidized and reduced to a fine powder, which forms the starting material for fabrication of DUPIC fuel pellets. The powder is conditioned to improve sinterability, pressed into pellets, sintered to a high density, ground to final size, and seal-welded within Zircaloy sheaths. Because the fuel remains highly radioactive, all the processing must be done in hot cells. 

LEE, J.S., et al.. Research and development program of KAERI for DUPIC (Direct Use of Spent PWR Fuel in CANDU Reactors), conceptual study on the DUPIC fuel manufacturing technology, GLOBAL 93, (Proc. Int. Conf on future energy systems Emerging nuclear fuel cycles and waste disposal options, Seattle, Washington, Sept. 1993), ANS/ENS. 

From a proliferation and security perspective, it would be preferable to destroy or use this plutonium, rather than entomb it, presuming no access ( intrusion ) or use is allowed or possible for a historic timescale of a miUion or so years. Interestingly, LWR spent fuel is at about 0.9% fissile, which is why France can and does recycle today, and why this used recycled fuel could also be recycled again directiy again in CANDU (in the so-called DUPIC cycle). 

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