Self-consistent model of nuclear power and nuclear fuel cycle

Under discussion are such major aspects of the nuclear energy sector as cos t effectiveness, nuclear and environmental safety of reactors and nuclear f uel cycle facilities, sustained fuel supply, and proven feasibility of a pr oliferation-resistant technology. These requirements can be met, for instan ce, by a two-circuit nuclear facility with an inherently safe fast reactor of the BREST type which is expected to produce electricity at a cost not hi gher than that at modern LWRs. Fuel supply to such facilities and to a rela tively small number of thermal reactors with BR < 1, could be provided by f ast reactors using depleted uranium as makeup fuel and having a small breed ing gain in the core (CBR approximate to 1.05) and bottom blanket (full BR approximate to 1.1). Use of a high-boiling metallic coolant (lead) affords deterministic nuclear, technical and environmental safety of the plants in design-basis and hypothetical accidents. Introduction of a transmutational NFC is viewed as one of the avenues to global environmental safety, when th e equivalent activity of long-lived high-level waste is made lower or close to the activity of the source material going into energy production: With such a balance in place, nuclear power could be regarded, in a sense, as wa ste-free. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.