Fundamental Principles of the Formation of an Efficient Fuel-Cycle Structure for Nuclear Power

Abstract

The growth prospects for nuclear power are examined: impeding and driving forces. The main problem facing nuclear power today is the management of spent fuel and wastes. Eventually, it will become economically inexpedient to store spent fuel; the natural solution is to reprocess spent fuel, extract the fi ssile isotopes, and recycle it in thermal or fast reactors. Since the fast-reactor fraction in the current system is trivial and the situation will remain the same in the near- and medium-term futures, a variant of plutonium recycling in thermal reactors with a different fuel arrangement is examined. It is shown that a heterogeneous fuel arrangement can give a 10-fold reduction of the radiation load in reprocessing enterprises. Different setups are compared in terms of the potential danger presented by spent-fuel reprocessing. The advantages of the thorium fuel cycle are examined from the standpoint of radiation and environmental safety.