Uranium consumption

The uranium consumption per power plant in Europe varies between 120 and 170 t U per year. One tonne of uranium yields between 40 000 and 50 000 MWh of electricity. 

Recycling of plutonium from processing reduces uranium consumption by 30%... 

In commercial transactions uranium concentrates are measured in short tons (2000 lb) of UjOg. In this unit, the annual uranium consumption of this reactor would be... 

Because Fig. 3.31 without plutonium recycle shows a specific uranium consumption of 439.2 lb UgOg/(MWe year), plutonium recycle reduces UgOg demand by 27 percent. 

The assumed uranium resources in Japan are 4 kt, in Argentina 12 kt and in France 48 kt U30g. How many 1 GWg reactor years can these uranium amounts sustain in each country at the uranium consumption rate (a) of the previous exercise ... 

For the next few decades, saving of uranium resources by nuclear fuel breeding will not be of primary importance for countries with a significant nuclear power sector. This is caused by a number of factors, namely (a) accumulation of plutonium as a result of reprocessing of spent fuel of the operating NPPs (b) release of considerable amount of plutonium and enriched uranium owing to disarmament (c) decrease of uranium consumption in the military industry (d) slowing down of the rate of nuclear power development and (e) ready availability of fossil fuels (natural gas and oil). 

It is necessary to implement advanced uranium- gadolinium (U02-Gd203) fuel assemblies with Zr alloy guide tubes (GT) and Zr alloy spacer grids (SG) for continuous improvements of WWER-1000 fuel utilization. It is expected to improve fuel assembly dimensional stability and to save uranium consumption by increasing uranium utilization. 

Maximum power output per site Lower natural uranium consumption per MWh Reduced long-lived high-level waste generation during operation Capability to use mixed uranium and plutonium oxide fuel from recycled used fuel Minimal quantities of high-activity metal structure... 

Uranium Consumption, Uranium Utilization, Equivalent NU Burnup, and Spent Fuel Arisings for Various HWR and PWR Fuel Cycles and FlWR/PWR Systems... 

The inverse of uranium utilization is uranium consumption. Relative to a PWR, natural uranium requirements in an HWR are 30% lower with natural uranium fuel. Enrichments to 0.9% SEU and 1.2% SEU would increase the fuel bumup by a factor of 2 and 3, respectively, relative to natural uranium fuel. This amounts to 45% lower uranium consumption with 0.9% SEU. The reduction in mined uranium requirements also has environmental benefits at the front end of the cycle, which will become even more important in the coming decades as cheaper, higher-grade uranium ore resources are depleted, requiring the mining of greater volumes of lower-grade ores. 

Enhanced fuel utilization efficiency and the reduction of natural uranium consumption are affected by the following engineering solutions ... 

Savings in natural uranium consumption and the associated fuel cost reduction ... 

There are 108 fuel elements in the seed zone at the fuel element pitch in a regular triangular lattice is 12.75 mm the fuel element pitch in the blanket zone is 11.73 mm. Uranium enrichment in the seed zone and blanket zone does not exceed 20%. Maximum fuel burn-up in the blanket zone is 90 MW d/ (kg heavy atoms), in the seed zone >100 MW d/kg U. The design parameters of the seed and blanket zones ensure that about 30% of the generated power comes from fission of produced and incinerated in-situ. Therefore, the natural uranium consumption is decreased by 20%. 

Uranium consumption (3% enrichment) on an annual basis (at capacity factor 0.7) 623.2 kg/year... 

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