FUEL & FUEL CYCLE |


Depleted uranium Low enriched uranium Spent nuclear fuel


Right, Figure 2: Sustainable nuclear power without long term waste


Centralised processing plant


Fission products


to community heat production facility


Nuclear fuel elements/ salt


Low level waste


Fuelled SMRs to users


Spent SMRs for recharge


V energy is inefficient. More generally, stored heat from reactors can be used to provide extra electricity to balance other intermittent electricity sources. To achieve this it must not require sophisticated


technical capability within the consumer’s country and must not leave behind waste management and guardianship issues. We propose that spent nuclear fuel should be split into


two streams, one that can be recycled as new nuclear fuel and the other that can conform to standards of low level waste suitable for immediate shallow burial. Resolving the delayed waste management issue will


allow a much wider variety of commercial companies to use nuclear reactors than at present. Wastes can be managed for these companies by specialist organisations that are equipped to recycle the reactors and their associated fuel.


Reactor types Using fast neutron reactors and advanced fuel cycles it may be possible to significantly reduce the footprint of deep geological repositories for the disposal of ultimate waste. This Blueprint for Future Nuclear Power seeks to extend this approach. Meanwhile a new generation of small reactors use modular designs that could be built in large numbers in a factory and deployed elsewhere. The new designs can incorporate inherent safety features, which simplify the design itself and the associated licensing and regulatory process. They include design for fast neutron reactors, which are far more efficient at “fissioning” their fuel, hence making better use of the fuel and causing less long-lived waste than LWRs. Fast neutron reactors will ultimately be the key to recycling their own fuel and legacy spent fuel from other reactors. Transporting the reactors for installation also in principle


allows the reactors to be returned after deployment. The user could thereby enjoy the benefits of nuclear reactors without having to deal with issues of long-term hazardous materials.


The aviation model Nearly all nations safely enjoy the benefits of aviation,


18 | May 2021 | www.neimagazine.com


but the majority rely on just a few countries for special capabilities such as constructing aircraft. A similar pattern needs to develop for these small reactors. We call this “Hub and Satellite” nuclear power (Figure 1). A small number of organisations act as the hub, supplying specialist nuclear services and satellite nations can receive and benefit from the nuclear facilities — leaving no long-term hazardous legacy at the satellite stations. There are three potential models to operate nuclear power in this way, depending on the size of the installation. The nuclear fuel is transported to and from reactors constructed and fixed at the satellite location, or the reactor is transported to and from the site with fuel inside, or for very small installations a fully integrated electricity generating plant can be transported to and from the satellite. Each of these alternatives have manifestations


established or planned — for example nuclear fuel reprocessing in the UK and France, Russia’s barge-mounted nuclear plant and a design study for small nuclear power plants for airlift to disaster zones. The Hub and Satellite concept allows cost savings to be achieved by replication and mass manufacture, whereas the centralisation of the waste management means that the cost of the complex operations of recycling fuel and dispositioning wastes can be spread over a large number of reactors.


Managing waste as a resource It is untrue to say, “Nobody knows what to do with nuclear waste”, because there are technically acceptable solutions (principally deep burial with engineered barriers in stable geology). However, because of residual uncertainties about the evolution of waste over very long periods of time, and heat generation in the short and mid-term, there is little current long-term disposition of spent fuel or high level waste (HLW). A large proportion of the world’s spent fuel is in surface storage in pools, which require human- supervised systems. Much of the rest is stored in air- cooled shielded storage casks, which still require a future permanent solution.


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