ON THE ISSUE OF PLUTONIUM COST IN A TWO-COMPONENT NUCLEAR POWER SYSTEM

Abstract

A possible approach to accounting for the specific present value of plutonium produced in fast reactors of a two-component nuclear power system (NPS) with thermal and fast reactors is described. The approach is based on taking into account the additional income that can be obtained by selling at the market price the natural uranium released when thermal reactors are replaced with fast reactors with MOX-fuel based on plutonium produced in NPS. At the same time, along with the sale of natural uranium, the sale at market value of other products made on its basis, for example, enriched uranium or fuel assemblies for a thermal reactors, can be considered. Relations between the main fuel characteristics of the considered nuclear reactors and the economic parameters characterizing the efficiency of nuclear reactors and the fuel cycle of a NPS are obtained. Using the methodology described in this paper, a computational study of the specific present value of plutonium in a two-product nuclear power model with commercial sodium high-power fast reactor and VVER-1200 reactors was carried out. The calculation results in all considered cases indicate very significant present value of plutonium. Comparison of the obtained cost of plutonium, which is ultimately based on the energy equivalent of plutonium and uranium, and the cost of plutonium, determined on the basis of the costs of the back-end of the fuel cycle (plutonium extraction from SNF), show the economic efficiency of closing the fuel cycle even at existing uranium prices.