Three Nuclear Fuel Cycle Options Characteristics Analysis And Economic Evaluation

Based on the reference of the Mid-long term nuclear power development plan and taking into consideration the current nuclear reactor technical characteristics and parameters in China, the detailed cycle route diagrams of three nuclear fuel cycle options: Once-thought fuel cycle(OTC), Twice-thought fuel cycle(TTC) and Mixed LWR+FR fuel cycle(FRC) were drawn. At the same time, the long balanced mass flows, burnup analysis and economics of three different cycles under the same electricity(1GWy) were done, respectively. In addition, the sensitivity analysis was made to identify the most influential parameters on the final price. Finally, by comparing the results of balanced mass flows, burnup and economics of different fuel cycle routes, this work provided relevant theoretical basis for actual national nuclear power developing program and energy policy.The calculation results of mass flow in this study have shown that the demand of natural uranium, total nuclear fuel of FRC option was less than two others, as well as the production of depleted uranium. The analysis of burnup further illustrated that 238 U consumption rate of FRC option was the biggest, which was 4.4 and 5.5 times than TTC and OTC, respectively. In other words, fertile nuclides were easier convert into fissile nuclides in FRC option. Thus FRC option improves the usage rate of uranium resources largely. The analysis of burnup also showed that 238 U consumption rate of OTC almost equal TTC(1.2 times). It can improve resource utilization at some level by adding MOX fuel to nuclear fuel, and there are certain advantages in a short time. However, it is not an ideal method for sustainable development of nuclear energy. Although radioactivity of spent fuel elements of FRC was the highest than OTC and TTC option when spent fuel elements were discharged from reactor, it firstly decreased to standard discharge value, because of its fast decay rate. The analysis of burnup also indicated that the plutonium productivity and production from high to low was FRC, TTC and OTC options, respectively. This means that FRC option could realize the nuclear fuel breeding.Nuclear power should to guarantee its safety because of radioactivity, and the economics as its electricity. So in order to make nuclear power development strategy and realize sustainable development of nuclear energy, it is of great importance to carry out advanced research on nuclear fuel cycle economic evaluation. The lifetime levelised fuel cycle cost electricity(LCOE) for three different options under the same generation and at different discount rate was calculated. The results showed that the economic of FRC option was the best among three nuclear fuel cycle options. It was noticeable that the standard deviation was almost equal in the OTC option and than in the PRR option. Sensitivity analysis illustrated that the total fuel cycle cost of FRC was most sensitive to the cost of fuel fabrication for fast reactor. This is to say the uranium price fluctuation in the world market has little influence on LCOE.