Comparative study of different nuclear fuel cycle options: Quantitative analysis on material flow

Byung Heung Park, Fanxing Gao, Eun-ha Kwon and Won Il Ko

Energy Policy, 2011, vol. 39, issue 11, 6916-6924

Abstract: As a nation develops its nuclear strategies, it must consider various aspects of nuclear energy such as sustainability, environmental-friendliness, proliferation-resistance, economics, technologies, and so on. A nuclear fuel cycle study could give convincing answers to many questions in regard to technical aspects. However, one nuclear fuel cycle option cannot be superior in all aspects. Therefore a nation must identify its top priority and accordingly evaluate all the possible nuclear fuel cycle options. For such a purpose, this paper examined four different fuel cycle options that are likely to be plausible under situation of Republic of Korea: once-through cycle, DUPIC recycling, thermal recycling using MOX fuel in PWR (pressurized water reactor), and SFR (sodium cooled fast reactor) employing fuel recycling by a pyroprocess. The options have been quantitatively compared in terms of resource utilization and waste generation based on 1TWh electricity production at a “steady-state” condition as a basic analysis. This investigation covered from the front-end of the fuel cycles to the final disposal and showed that the Pyro-SFR recycling appears to be the most competitive from these material quantitative aspects due to the reduction of the required uranium resources and the least amount of waste generation.

Keywords: Nuclear fuel cycle; Comparative study; Material flow analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:39:y:2011:i:11:p:6916-6924

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2011.03.083

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