A Review of Environmental and Economic Implications of Closing the Nuclear Fuel Cycle—Part Two: Economic Impacts

Robin Taylor, William Bodel and Gregg Butler
Additional contact information
Robin Taylor: National Nuclear Laboratory, Central Laboratory, Sellafield, Seascale CA20 1PG, UK
William Bodel: Dalton Nuclear Institute, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
Gregg Butler: Dalton Nuclear Institute, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 7, 1-31

Abstract: Globally, around half a million tonnes of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) will be in dry or wet storage by around 2050. Continued storage is not sustainable and this SNF must eventually either be disposed (the open nuclear fuel cycle) or recycled (the closed fuel cycle). Many international studies have addressed the advantages and disadvantages of these options which can be considered now in the framework of sustainable development and the three pillars of: economic, environmental and societal impacts. To inform this debate, a detailed survey of the available literature related to economic assessments of closed and open cycles has been undertaken—this complements an earlier review on environmental impacts. Results of economic assessments showing how the management of spent fuels in the open and closed cycles impacts the costs of the nuclear fuel cycle, are usually presented in terms of the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE). It is clear that the costs of the back end of the fuel cycle are a relatively minor component of the LCOE and that there is significant overlap between calculations on open and closed fuel cycles.

Keywords: radioactive waste; spent nuclear fuel; sustainability; nuclear fuel cycle; closed fuel cycle; open fuel cycle; levelised cost of electricity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/7/2472/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/7/2472/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:7:p:2472-:d:781186

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().