Merits and Viability of Different Nuclear Fuel Cycles and Technology Options and the Waste Aspects of Advanced Nuclear Reactors (2023) / Chapter Skim
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Much of this interest stems from the potential ability of advanced reactors and their associated fuel cycles -- as claimed by their designers and developers -- to provide a number of advantages, such as improvements in economic competitiveness, reductions in environmental impact via better natural resource utilization and/or lower waste generation, and enhancements in nuclear safety and proliferation resistance. In the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 (Public Law 116-94)
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3 This report addresses potential merits of advanced nuclear reactors regarding waste, fuel utilization, and proliferation resistance and focuses the safety assessment on the front and back ends of the fuel cycles. Potential merits related to reliability, thermal efficiency, nonelectricity applications, and reactor operational safety are addressed in the National Academies study Laying the Foundation for New and Advanced Reactors in the United States, which is scheduled to conclude in early 2023.
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An important, but often overlooked, aspect is the human capital needed -- a trained workforce to support advanced reactors and fuel cycles. As the committee carried out its work, it appreciated that trade-offs are necessary when assessing potential merits and viabilities of different advanced reactors and associated fuels and fuel cycles.
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POTENTIAL MERITS AND VIABILITY OF ADVANCED REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED FUEL CYCLES Internationally, several countries are pursuing development and deployment of advanced reactor technologies and associated fuel cycles. The Generation IV International Forum (GIF)
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Department of Energy's (DOE's) research and development programs over the next several years, DOE should select and support, with industry cost sharing, the development of a few promising advanced reactor technologies and fuel cycles that can be potentially deployed by 2050 and achieve goals described in the Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act of 2017 (NEICA)
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NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE NEEDS FOR ADVANCED REACTORS To evaluate the merits and viability of different fuel cycle options, the committee analyzed (1) the once-through cycle for LWRs, (2)
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Finding 10: Because of the absence of current commercial operational experience with advanced reactor technologies in the United States, reliable cost data and estimates for these technologies and their associated fuel cycle components are lacking. The costs of advanced reactors and their associated fuel cycles could range from at least several billion dollars -- for pilot-scale non–light water advanced reactors and their fuel cycle facilities -- to hundreds of billions of dollars -- for full deployment of an alternative fuel cycle that would replace the existing once-through cycle and existing light water reactors.
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Finding 12: The advanced reactor developers' presentations to the committee focused on the reactors themselves, with little or no attention to nuclear waste management or disposal of the nuclear waste generated because there is no incentive for them to do so. In the absence of a final geologic disposal strategy in the United States, the expansion of nuclear power using advanced reactors will add to the amount of spent nuclear fuel and associated waste that requires disposal and increase the complexity of this challenge because of the need to dispose of new types of fuels and waste streams.
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Developers of advanced nuclear reactors also need to anticipate the impact of new fuel types on their performance as a waste form in a geologic repository. Finding 14: Conceptually, advanced reactors could be used to reduce the current inventory of transuranics in the approximately 86,000 tonnes of legacy spent fuel to date; this would require considerable resources and time to design, develop, prototype, build, and make operational the required infrastructure.
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Finding 16: Similar to issues with waste management, advanced reactor developers have not adequately examined the back-end operational management (i.e., storage and transportation) of advanced nuclear spent fuel.
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For this analysis, the committee grouped advanced reactors and fuel cycles into the following categories: (1) once-through fast reactors using HALEU; (2)
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Nuclear Regulatory Commission should initiate a rulemaking to address the security and material accounting measures for high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) and other attractive nuclear materials that may be present in advanced reactor fuel cycles.
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