Fuel inventory charges

Ilf optimization. The bismuth inventory is slightly greater for the ca.se of Pb Pt = 0.10 than for the other two cases, because of the added primary. system volume. Fuel inventory charges are not very sensitive to... 

Fuel inventory charges. The annual lease charges on the are assumed to be 4%. Treating Pa as fuel, the annual fuel inventory charges can be expressed as... 

In many cases the additional fuel inventory charges and reactor vessel costs corresponding to higher conversion ratios more than offset the reduction in fuel burnup costs. The economically optimum reactor is neither a burner nor a converter with maximum conversion ratio, but somewhat betw een these extremes. 

Chem. proc. cycle, da3 S M23 T) M T) M23 T) MUT) M 23 T) BR(T ) Fuel inventory- charges, /day Fuel burnup costs, /daj Chem. proc. costs, /day Total variable cost, /day... 

Fuel cycle costs based on 10% inventory charges, 10/gm plutonium, shipping half-way across the U.S.A., and 17,000/day reprocessing charges per the AEC standard plant are given in Table XIV. 

Fig. 10-8. Effect of LiaS04 and concentration on fuel cost of a one-region spherical plutonium-producer power reactor. Diameter = 12 ft, avg. reactor temperature = 280°C, electrical power =125 Mw, heat generation = 480 Mw, avg. lithium cross section = 0.2 barn, plutonium credit = 40/g, inventory charge = 4%, molar ratio of Li2S04 to U02S04= 1, processing rate= 1000 g U /day.

Fig. 10-9. Fuel costs in single-region reactors as a function of power level. Values in parentheses refer to core diameter (ft), fuel processing cycle time (days), and fertile material concentration (g/liter) at near-optimum conditions. Inventory charge = 4%, relative chemical processing = 1, relative poisons = t = 2.08,...

Thi> ( IIllation assumes a 30-kg inventory of feed material external to the reactor. The economic assumptions used in this equation are 4% fuel lease charges and a price of 15.65/g. 

Since the cost of bismuth as a primary coolant is between ) ,000,000 and. 84,000,000, the inventory charges are a significant fraction of the total fuel costs. One case was calculated using lead as a coolant in order to compare the increase in inventory charges due to the use of bismuth with the loss in conversion ratio due to the absorptions in the lead. 

A burnup of 25,000 MWd/tU or more is usually reached in a three or four charges fuel reloading scheme, since a one-batch management would lead to excessive inventory of fissile material. 

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