Abstract
The paper studies the influence of such factors as nuclear power industry structure, fuel burn-up conditions and accumulation of new fissile isotopes from raw materials, on the basic parameters of closed nuclear fuel cycle. Holding time of the spent fuel of modern thermal reactors before reprocessing (with burn-up of 50-60 MWd/t) is not less than 5 years, for fast reactors – even longer, due to bigger burn-up values. These delays in the external fuel cycle are connected with high activity of the unloaded fuel. All these factors result in continuous accumulation of spent nuclear fuel. Besides, the reprocessing of typical spent fuel leads to appearance of low- and medium-active waste in ample quantities. The paper also considers such issues as the influence of the breeding factor on the fuel cycle parameters and natural uranium consumption, separation of blanket and fissile isotope burn-up regions.
Key words
nuclear power industry, thermal reactor, closing the nuclear fuel cycle, core, fuel element, FC delay time, FR breeding factor, SNF holding time
Article Text (PDF, in Russian)
UDC 621.039.54
Problems of Atomic Science and Technology. Series: Nuclear and Reactor Constants", issue 3:1, 2014