Fuel cycle economics

There remains the question of how to come by the first core loading without separation of Pu. One possibility [XX-8, XX-33] is to use LWR spent fuel as the feed material and to remove from it only part of the uranium and part or all of the FP. For example, if the LWR spent fuel contains 1% Pu and minor activities (MA), it is necessary to remove approximately 90% of the uranium to make a fuel with 11 to 12 % of Pu and MA by weight. This could hopefully be done using a highly proliferation-resistant process, possibly a combination of an AIROX process and a fluoride volatilization process or a simplified version of the UREX process. Another feed option that could be considered is the spent fuel from MOX fuelled LWRs. The transuranium isotopes (TRU) content in such spent fuel can be approximately half of that needed for ENHS like reactors. Hence, only -50% of the uranium need be extracted along with FP to make fuel for ENHS like reactor. The latter is likely to offer a more economical fuel cycle. 

Petroleum engineers are traditionally involved in activities known in the oil industry as the front end of the petroleum fuel cycle (petroleum is either liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons derived from natural deposits—reservoirs—in the earth). These front end activities are namely exploration (locating and proving out the new geological provinces with petroleum reservoirs that may be exploited in the future), and development (the systematic drilling, well completion, and production of economically producible reservoirs). Once the raw petroleum fluids (e.g., crude oil and natural gas) have been produced from the earth, the back end of the fuel cycle takes the produced raw petroleum fluids and refines the.se fluids into useful products. 

Nuclear fuel cycle, 77 545-547 safety principles and, 17 546-547 Nuclear fuel reprocessing, 10 789-790 Nuclear fuel reserves, 17 518-530 alternative sources of, 17 527 economic aspects of, 17 526-527 toxicology of uranium, 17 528-529 uranium mineral resources, 17 518-521, 522-525... 

A thorough analysis and evaluation of different fuel cycles with regard to economics, environmental impacts, nuclear waste management and proliferation risk is given by the MIT (2003). 

Another potentially vast resource is seawater. Uranium resources associated with the oceans are estimated at around 4000 million tonnes however, the uranium concentration in seawater is only around 0.003 ppm. The recovery of uranium from seawater is still subject to basic research. Considerable technological developments as well as significant improvements of economics (or drastic increases in uranium prices) are crucial for the commercial use of this resource, which is unlikely in the foreseeable future. As the energy demand for uranium extraction increases with lower concentrations, the net energy balance of the entire fuel cycle is also critical. 

An important issue, not discussed in the present chapter, is the need to assess by life cycle analysis the sustainability of processes employing biomass instead of fossil fuels. Moreover, socio-economic life cycle assessment rather than simple... 

The second part deals with applications of solvent extraction in industry, and begins with a general chapter (Chapter 7) that involves both equipment, flowsheet development, economic factors, and environmental aspects. Chapter 8 is concerned with fundamental engineering concepts for multistage extraction. Chapter 9 describes contactor design. It is followed by the industrial extraction of organic and biochemical compounds for purification and pharmaceutical uses (Chapter 10), recovery of metals for industrial production (Chapter 11), applications in the nuclear fuel cycle (Chapter 12), and recycling or waste treatment (Chapter 14). Analytical applications are briefly summarized in Chapter 13. The last chapters, Chapters 15 and 16, describe some newer developments in which the principle of solvent extraction has or may come into use, and theoretical developments. 

Because early Canadian reactors used heavy water, and because it is also fundamentally the most efficient moderator, Canada naturally adopted the heavy water reactor for the development of a nuclear power system. By using heavy water both as moderator and as coolant, and by refuelling with the reactor at power, it was possible to develop the CANDU system to operate efficiently and economically with natural uranium fuel. This in turn resulted in the simplest possible fuel cycle. 

Although the PUREX process is regarded as a well-matured chemical technology in the nuclear industry, owing to its complex chemistry, high radiation field, evolution of the fuels to be processed (i.e., extended high burn-up and MOX fuel), safety and economical issues, and its principal position in establishing the nuclear fuel cycle, both fundamental and application studies have been continued. 

Specific areas of competence of the NEA include safety and regulation of nuclear activities, radioactive waste management, radiological protection, nuclear science, economic and technical analyses of the nuclear fuel cycle, nuclear law and liability, and public information. 

This chapter focuses on the interactions of radionuclides with geomedia in near-surface low-temperature environments. Due to the limitations on the chapter length, this review will not describe the mineralogy or economic geology of uranium deposits the use of radionuclides as environmental tracers in studies of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, or lithosphere, the nature of the nuclear fuel cycle or processes involved in nuclear weapons production. Likewise, radioactive contamination associated with the use of atomic weapons during World War 11, the contamination of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, or lithosphere related to nuclear weapons testing, and concerns... 

Favorable Economics. (a) The economics of a small scale reprocessing facility (0.1 to 1.0 Mg/day) favors PDPM because of the concentration of material in process thus minimizing plant size (b) the capability for processing short-cooled fuel reduces the turn-around time in the fuel cycle with a corresponding reduction in inventory costs (c) the elimination of conversion steps at the head-end and for the final product may reduce overall processing costs relative to aqueous processes. 

The incineration of actinides in a fast breeder will probably require a new fuel cycle with completely remote fabrication, reprocessing and refabrication of the actinide fuel. The recently developed high flux irradiation facilities may become more economical for the actinide incineration. Concerning the reprocessing, an actinide separation is indispensable and, thus, the actinides will be treated during the extraction in the same way as mentioned above. 

The optimization reduced the fresh fuel enrichment required to satisfy the cycle energy requirements from 3.60 w/o to 3.40 w/o. As shown in Figure 8, the value of FAH predicted by FORMOSA-P over the fuel cycle was also reduced from 1.41 to the constraint limit (user input) value of 1.38. The optimized fuel pattern achieves substantial improvements in fuel cycle economics while at the same time improving the margin to thermal operating limits. 

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