Nuclear power and the fuel cycle

The market for fabrication of fuel rods and assemblies is dominated by the builders of nuclear power plants.

Uranium enrichment is an important technology under tight international control to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Despite this some countries have developed nuclear weapons or are believed to be doing so. The new laser separation technology developed by Silex Systems may have substantial implications for weapons proliferations if it substantially reduces the cost of enrichment.

4. Nuclear Power Generation

There are no present plans for nuclear power generation in Australia. However, the time may come for a reassessment of public policy. This will be particularly true if carbon taxes are raised to a point where nuclear power becomes competitive with coal and renewables are unable to provide base load power.

The present cost of enriched uranium fuel at US or A$7.00 per MWh is more than the estimated short run marginal cost of electricity from brown coal in Victoria at $2 to $5 per MWh. Marginal costs for black coal in New South Wales and Queensland are $6 to $17 per MWh.

A carbon tax would see these coal costs increase. A carbon tax of $23 per tonne of CO2 would increase brown coal costs by $35 and black coal costs by $25. Of course the MRET scheme that has enabled the building of wind farms has a subsidy of some $30 per MWh. This could be extended to nuclear power station financing but the lead time and large capital cost combined with the present uncertainty over the future of the carbon tax and hence electricity pricing makes such projects unattractive.

5 Reprocessing and Disposal

Reprocessing is an important element in the fuel cycle as it enables the recovery of unused uranium and plutonium from the used fuel elements. This closes the fuel cycle, gaining some 25 per cent more energy from the original uranium. In some countries, such as Japan this stage is regarded as contributing to energy security.

A 1,000 MWe nuclear reactor generates about 27 tonnes of spent fuel per year. Reprocessing separates the fission products from uranium and plutonium. After two years in a reactor, the spent fuel is 95 percent U-238, 1 percent U-235, 1 percent plutonium and 3 percent fission products and transuranic elements (actinides). Reprocessing reduces the volume of material to be disposed of as high-level waste to about one third of that for the spent fuel elements. Also the level of radioactivity in the waste from reprocessing is much smaller and drops off much more rapidly than in the used fuel itself which remains radioactive for tens of thousands of years

Some 290,000 tonnes of spent fuel has been discharged from power reactors over the last 50 years. Between now and 2030 an additional 400,000 tonnes of used fuel is expected to be generated worldwide with over half coming from outside North America and Europe. So far, only 90,000 tonnes of used fuel has been reprocessed. This represents a total of 690,000 tonnes of spent fuel that needs to be reprocessed or placed into long term storage.

Annual global reprocessing capacity is some 4,000 tonnes per year for normal oxide fuels but spent fuel is generated at about 12,000 tonnes per year and should increase to over 20,000 tonnes per year by 2030. This means there is a shortfall for reprocessing capacity of approximately 8,000 tonnes a year at the moment and this will grow to approximately 16,000 tonnes a year by 2030.

The main reprocessing plants are in France and the UK serving customers world-wide. There is no reprocessing in the United States as this was stopped by President Carter in 1977.