| FUEL & FUEL CYCLE
David Bradbury Associate
TÜV UK Ltd (TÜV NORD)
George Elder Associate
TÜV UK Ltd (TÜV NORD)
David Hebditch Associate
TÜV UK Ltd (TÜV NORD)
Susan Hewish Director Nuclear
TÜV UK Ltd (TÜV NORD)
Using waste to fuel future reactors
David Bradbury, George Elder, David Hebditch and Susan Hewish suggest how today’s nuclear waste can be used as future nuclear fuel and how this could affect management of existing and future waste streams
Mini
power plant
LARGE LIGHT WATER REACTORS WITH a once through fuel cycle make up most of the world’s nuclear power fleet, but they have a low thermodynamic efficiency for electricity generation, have a legacy of spent fuel requiring long-term storage and only use 1% of the uranium mined to fuel them. There have been technical solutions to those
Nuclear services hub
shortcomings since the beginning of the nuclear age. Fast neutron reactors, for example, can utilise a far higher proportion of the uranium than thermal neutron reactors. But any new plan must be more than just better reactors. Whether the reactors remain in-situ with the user or are returned to a host country at the end of life, the nuclear residues within them will need to be addressed. There is no a-priori reason for nuclear power to be more
Reactor
Nuclear fuel
Above, Figure 1: Hub and Satellite nuclear power concept
expensive than other energy sources. If deployed efficiently it requires very little land, material or labour. The current cost barriers are primarily related to complex design, high initial investment, uncertainty over the costs of disposal of long lived-wastes, lack of vibrancy of the industry and the absence of learning by replication. Internationally the focus of technical development is on new reactor designs, but the industry needs to remember that radioactive waste and its associated longevity are widely perceived as a critical disadvantage for the technology. That perception stifles investment in the technology as a whole. We need nuclear power to meet a range of needs. It is well suited to complement other low carbon energy sources, for example to generate power where solar U
www.neimagazine.com | May 2021 | 17
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