Analysis of the Benefits and Problems of Introducing the Tandem Nuclear Fuel Cycle to the United States PDF Download

Author: Anthony N. Sinclair
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nuclear reactors
Languages : en
Pages : 102

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Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government publications
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Author: Mary Beth Dunham Nikitin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nuclear energy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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After several decades of decline and disfavor, nuclear power is attracting renewed interest. New permit applications for 30 reactors have been filed in the United States, and another 150 are planned or proposed globally, with about a dozen more already under construction. In the United States, interest appears driven, in part, by provisions in the 2005 Energy Policy Act authorizing streamlined licensing that combine construction and operating permits, and tax credits for production from advanced nuclear power facilities. Moreover, the U.S. Department of Energy proposes to spend billions of dollars to develop the next generation of nuclear power technology. Expanding global access to nuclear power, nevertheless, has the potential to lead to the spread of sensitive nuclear technology. Despite 30 years of effort to limit access to uranium enrichment, several undeterred states pursued clandestine nuclear programs; the A.Q. Khan black market network's sales to Iran and North Korea representing the most egregious examples. Concern over the spread of enrichment and reprocessing technologies, combined with a growing consensus that the world must seek alternatives to dwindling and polluting fossil fuels, may be giving way to optimism that advanced nuclear technologies may offer proliferation resistance. Proposals offering countries access to nuclear power and thus the fuel cycle have ranged from a formal commitment by these countries to forswear enrichment and reprocessing technology, to a de facto approach in which a state does not operate fuel cycle facilities but makes no explicit commitment, to no restrictions at all. The most recent proposal under the U.S. Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) represents a shift in U.S. policy by not requiring participants to forgo domestic fuel cycle programs. Whether developing states will find existing proposals attractive enough to forgo what they see as their "inalienable" right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes remains to be seen. Congress will have a considerable role in at least four areas of oversight related to fuel cycle proposals. The first is providing funding and oversight of U.S. domestic programs related to expanding nuclear energy in the United States. The second area is policy direction and/or funding for international measures to assure supply. A third set of policy issues may arise in the context of implementing the international component of GNEP. A fourth area in which Congress plays a key role is in the approval of nuclear cooperation agreements. The 110th Congress has introduced several bills related to nuclear energy in the United States and fuel cycle assurances, including H.R. 885, S. 1977, S. 1700, S. 1138, S. 970, and S. 328 (Section 336). This report will be updated as events warrant.

Author: Paul M. Youchak
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 83

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The resurgence of global interest in nuclear energy is fueled by growing energy demands, concerns of global warming, and the desire to diversify energy supply. In order for the nuclear renaissance to be safely realized, a number of concerns must first be addressed. Foremost among them are the dual-use nature of nuclear technology and the spread of nuclear weapons. As small nuclear power programs expand and new states introduce nuclear power into their electricity grid, states must decide whether or not to develop indigenous enrichment and reprocessing facilities that may be misused for a weapons program. One of the must discussed instruments to strengthen the nonproliferation regime and limit the dangerous spread of sensitive fuel cycle technologies is the multilateralzation of the nuclear fuel cycle. Through multilateral mechanisms, multilateral arrangements to the nuclear fuel cycle attempt to limit the spread of fuel cycle technologies by removing the incentives to do so. Concepts and proposals for multilateral arrangements have been around since the advent of nuclear energy in the 1940s but have received a lukewarm response from the international community. It is postulated that this response is driven by difficulties multilateral arrangements have in addressing all of the motivations for the establishment of fuel cycle facilities. An investigation is presented within to detail the most powerful motivations that multilateral arrangements may have been overlooking to this date. In order to achieve this, three case studies are performed to uncover the most powerful motivations for the development of fuel cycle facilities. The motivations are complex and include a variety of economic, political, and potentially proliferation related incentives. Brazil, South Korea, and Iran are chosen for the case studies because they are currently in the process of introducing sensitive facilities into their nuclear fuel cycles, or are strongly considering it. Following the description of the various motivations for the pursuit of sensitive fuel cycle facilities, an analysis is provided to determine which, if any, of the proposed multilateral arrangements are in best position to be successfully implemented. The study found that the establishment of regional nuclear fuel cycle facilities and centers offers the greatest potential to strengthen the nonproliferation regime by targeting the state's political power incentives. Supply assurances do not address the needs of any of the studied states, indicating they are not applicable to well-developed nuclear power states or those in possession fuel cycle technologies. Supply assurances do however, provide strong confidence building measures in the establishment of regional fuel cycles. Lastly, the development of multilateral spent-fuel repositories may be the most sure-fired way to prevent the spread of reprocessing facilities.

Author: Yury Yudin
Publisher: UN
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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"To be successful, multilateral fuel cycle arrangements will require broad political consensus on how the international community can limit the spread of sensitive nuclear technologies, while allowing full access for all states to the benefits of peaceful applications of nuclear energy. This book examines the priorities and concerns of non-supplier states and identifies areas of potential convergence for suppliers and non-suppliers."--P. [4] of cover.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780982800843
Category : Energy policy
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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"In this analysis we have presented a method that provides insight into future fuel cycle alternatives by clarifying the complexity of choosing an appropriate fuel cycle in the context of the distribution of burdens and benefits between generations. The current nuclear power deployment practices, together with three future fuel cycles were assessed."--Page 227.

Author: Yury Yudin
Publisher: UN
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Global energy demands are driving a potential expansion in the use of nuclear energy worldwide. It is estimated that the global nuclear power capacity could double by 2030. This could result in dissemination of sensitive nuclear technologies that present obvious risks of proliferation. Certain international institutional mechanisms for controlling access to sensitive materials, facilities and technologies are needed for dealing with this problem. Over the past few years, 12 proposals have been put forward by states, nuclear industry and international organizations, aimed at checking the spread of uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing technologies. This book presents an overview and analysis of these proposals, including an evaluation of the projected international mechanisms.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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The Fuel Cycle Options (FCO) campaign in the U.S. DOE Fuel Cycle Research & Development Program conducted a detailed evaluation and screening of nuclear fuel cycles. The process for this study was described at the 2014 ICAPP meeting. This paper reports on detailed insights and questions from the results of the study. The comprehensive study identified continuous recycle in fast reactors as the most promising option, using either U/Pu or U/TRU recycle, and potentially in combination with thermal reactors, as reported at the ICAPP 2014 meeting. This paper describes the examination of the results in detail that indicated that there was essentially no difference in benefit between U/Pu and U/TRU recycle, prompting questions about the desirability of pursuing the more complex U/TRU approach given that the estimated greater challenges for development and deployment. The results will be reported from the current effort that further explores what, if any, benefits of TRU recycle (minor actinides in addition to plutonium recycle) may be in order to inform decisions on future R & D directions. The study also identified continuous recycle using thorium-based fuel cycles as potentially promising, in either fast or thermal systems, but with lesser benefit. Detailed examination of these results indicated that the lesser benefit was confined to only a few of the evaluation metrics, identifying the conditions under which thorium-based fuel cycles would be promising to pursue. For the most promising fuel cycles, the FCO is also conducting analyses on the potential transition to such fuel cycles to identify the issues, challenges, and the timing for critical decisions that would need to be made to avoid unnecessary delay in deployment, including investigation of issues such as the effects of a temporary lack of plutonium fuel resources or supporting infrastructure. These studies are placed in the context of an overall analysis approach designed to provide comprehensive information to the decision-making process.

Author: J. Choi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 11

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For many years, the commercial nuclear business has remained relatively stable in many ways. The introduction of new plants, the spread to new countries, and the development of key elements of the fuel cycle such as enrichment, reprocessing and waste disposal have been quite modest. That is unlikely to be the case in the coming years. A number of events and trends are becoming increasingly apparent and are cause for both opportunity and caution: (1) New nuclear power plant orders are likely to grow and spread, particularly in the developing world, e.g. China and India. (2) The growing recognition that the developing world will be a major competitor for limited energy resources is raising awareness in the developed world regarding concerns for future energy security. (3) Clearer evidence of the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on global warming, largely from the burning of fossil fuels, is creating more attention on the environmental benefits of nuclear power. (4) The last decade has shown unequivocal evidence of countries lying, cheating on their NPT obligation, and covertly carrying out nuclear weapons-related activities. Some have suggested their presumed need for a domestic nuclear fuel cycle as a rationale to pursue enrichment and/or reprocessing capabilities, which would move them to the doorstep of being nuclear weapons capable. The DPRK even took the action to abrogate the NPT to hold on to its nuclear weapons program. (5) 9/11 and other evidence have made it undeniable that terrorist groups would like to obtain weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapons, and would use them if they could. A number of initiatives have been proposed recently to allow for the growth and spread of nuclear power while limiting the justifications for additional countries to pursue the acquisition of enrichment or reprocessing capabilities. Most of these initiatives have fresh fuel assurance as a central component. The rationale is simple; if a country can have assurance that it will receive all the fresh fuel it needs for the lifetime of its nuclear power plants, there should be no reason for it to pursue the difficult and costly capability to enrich the fuel itself or to reprocess its spent fuel to recover the produced plutonium for recycle as a fuel in its reactors. However, such offers are unlikely to be fully persuasive if they are not connected to complementary offers for management of the spent nuclear fuel that is created during power production. In this paper, we discuss the complexity of the linkage to spent fuel take-back and the challenges and opportunities this present to nations repository programs.

Author: D. F. Newman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nuclear fuels
Languages : en
Pages : 6

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