FUEL & FUEL CYCLE | REPROCESSING
Unless there is a major breakthrough, it is difficult to see a world in 2050-2100 without fission and fast reactors
V The IAEA-TECDOC-1967: notes: “All in all, the process should be well cultivated for co-location with a fast reactor, which is considered to be an ideal system for a fast reactor fleet. However, this industrialisation is currently delayed by the fact that the technology is not economically viable in any country.”
National strategies The IAEA looks at the national strategies of France, India South Korea, Japan, the USA and Russia, all of which are developing used fuel separation technologies. Of these, France and Japan have opted for a closed fuel cycle based primarily on aqueous technology. So has India, but it is also planning to develop fast reactors and pyroprocessing as well as thorium-fuelled reactors. Korea and the USA operate an open fuel cycle but are investigating other options. Russia has a closed fuel cycle based on aqueous technology and Mox fuel but is developing other technologies with the aim of eventually totally closing the fuel cycle based on fast reactors and repeated recycling. France has a well-developed industrial base supporting aqueous technology as well as recycling based on Mox fuel production. Both aqueous and pyro-reprocessing are studied by the French Alternative Energy and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). However, aqueous reprocessing based on Purex remains the reference route. Fast reactors no longer figure in France’s plans. In 2019 it
cancelled plans for a 600MW sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor, Astrid (Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration), to be built at Marcoule as a successor to Rapsodie, Phénix and Superphénix (all closed). Russia is in the process of developing industrial scale
facilities to support a multi-faceted closed fuel cycle. In addition to LWRs and two operating commercial sodium- cooled fast reactors, various designs such as fast reactors with lead, lead-bismuth and sodium coolant are being developed. From 2030 it plans to deploy fast reactors on a large scale and with a two-component nuclear system with a unified fuel cycle. The Beloyarsk 4 BN-800, which began operations in 2014, is now using Mox fuel with the aim of demonstrating the use of Mox at industrial scale as part of a closed fuel cycle strategy. BN-800 is a precursor to the planned larger BN-1200. Russia’s Proryv (Breakthrough) project aims to develop
new generation nuclear power technologies based on the closed nuclear fuel cycle with fast reactors. The basic provisions include exclusion of severe accidents, closing the fuel cycle, radiation-neutral management of radioactive waste disposal, technology supporting non-proliferation (no uranium enrichment and no plutonium separation, and a breeding ratio of about 1) and bringing the cost of fast reactor construction to that of other nuclear power plants. As part of Proryv, an Experimental and Demonstration
Energy Complex (EDEC) is under construction at the Siberian Chemical Combine (SCC) in Seversk. It will comprise a lead- cooled BREST-OD-300 fast reactor; a reprocessing module
26 | February 2022 |
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for used mixed uranium-plutonium nitride (MNUP) fuel; a fabrication/refabrication module (FRM) to produce reactor fuel for the starting loads from imported materials and nuclear fuel for trans-shipment from recycled materials. The reprocessing module will use combined (pyrochemical + hydrometallurgical) MNUP fuel reprocessing technology, which is also suitable for reprocessing used fast reactor Mox fuel. It is also pursuing pure hydrometallurgical technology for fast reactor fuel reprocessing. An integrated complex for used fuel management is being established at the Mining and Chemical Complex (MCC), which includes: wet storage; air-cooled dry storage; a pilot-demonstration centre for reprocessing used fuel based on innovative technologies; and a Mox fuel fabrication plant for fast reactors. An underground research lab is being set up to develop technologies for HLW disposal. Russia has developed multi-recycling technology for
plutonium and reprocessed uranium recovered from LWR used fuel. Remix fuel is the mixture of reprocessed uranium and plutonium, with the addition of enriched uranium (natural or reprocessed). Remix fuel enables up to seven recycles of the full quantity of uranium and plutonium from used fuel.
Fast reactor forum IAEA is planning an International Conference on Fast Reactors and Related Fuel Cycles: Sustainable Clean Energy for the Future which will be held on 19-22 April 2022 in Vienna, Austria. “The importance of fast reactors and related fuel cycles in ensuring the long-term sustainability of nuclear power has been largely recognised for a long time by the nuclear community,” IAEA says. Fast reactors offer advantages over traditional thermal reactors in terms of sustainability. “When operated in a fully closed fuel cycle, fast reactors have the potential to extract 60-70 times more energy from uranium than existing thermal reactors and contribute to a significant reduction in the burden of high- level wastes.” The conference has four objectives:
● To identify and discuss strategic and technical options, including potential capabilities in mitigation of climate change while reducing the amount of highly radioactive nuclear waste;
● To promote the development of fast reactors and related fuel cycle technologies in a safe, proliferation-resistant and cost-effective manner;
● To identify gaps and key issues that need to be addressed in industrial deployment of these technologies;
● To engage young scientists and engineers, in particular with regard to innovative fast reactor concepts.
“Fast reactors can be a bridge to a future of even safer and more efficient nuclear power, providing sustainable clean energy for generations,” says Mikhail Chudakov, IAEA deputy director general and head of the Department of Nuclear Energy. ■
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