Overview of recycled nuclear fuel for energy production

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to constitute an understanding of the development, the current state and the future of spent nuclear fuel recycling. This thesis explores the possibility of closing the nuclear fuel cycle by recycling uranium and plutonium in fast breeder reactors. The development of already existing technologies for uranium and plutonium recycling are presented along with the environmental and economic impacts of spent nuclear fuel recycling. The standard open fuel cycle without any degree of fuel recycling is compared to a partially closed fuel cycle and the prospective fully closed fuel cycle. This thesis is conducted as a literature review and serves as an overview of the wider topic of nuclear fuel recycling.

Nuclear energy is relatively environmentally friendly as nuclear power plants do not produce greenhouse gases during operation. The environmentally challenging parts of nuclear energy production lie significantly in uranium mining and fuel production as well as in nuclear waste management and storage. This thesis examines how nuclear fuel recycling affects those aspects and what kind of advantages and disadvantages it brings. Technical challenges of recycling are examined, for example, the behavior of fuel made of recycled materials in reactors is compared to typical uranium fuel.

This thesis found that there are well established technologies for spent nuclear fuel recycling currently in use. Advantages of spent nuclear fuel recycling include the reduced need for uranium mining and reduction of high-level waste volumes and radiotoxicity of the waste. Disadvantages of recycling are largely economic as the production of uranium fuel is cheaper than recycling. Closing the nuclear fuel cycle is possible with fast reactors but it is not yet deployable commercially. Fast reactors are under development, but they are not expected to become commercially available to produce power until the latter half of this century.