Economic analysis on direct use of spent pressurized water reactor fuel inCANDU reactors - II: DUPIC fuel-handling cost

The Direct Use of spent Pressurized water reactor fuel In Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) reactors (DUPIC) fuel-handling technique has been investiga ted through a conceptual design study to estimate the unit cost that can be used for the DUPIC fuel cycle cost calculation. The conceptual design stud y has shown that fresh DUPIC fuel can be transferred to the core following the existing spent-fuel discharge route, provided that new fuel-handling eq uipment, such as the manipulator, opening/sealing tool of shipping casks, n ew fuel magazine, new fuel ram, dryer, gamma-ray detector, etc., are instal led. The reverse path loading option is known to minimize the number of add itional pieces of equipment for fuel handling, because it utilizes the exis ting spent-fuel handling equipment, and the discharge of spent DUPIC fuel c an be done through the existing spent-fuel handling system without any modi fication. However, because the decay heat of spent DUPIC fuel is much highe r than that of spent natural uranium fuel, the extra cooling capacity shoul d be supplemented in the spent-fuel storage bay. Based on the conceptual de sign study, the capital cost for DUPIC fuel handling and extra storage cool ing capacity was estimated to be $3750000 (as of December 1999) per CANDU p lant. The levelized unit cost of DUPIC fuel handling was then obtained by c onsidering the amount of fuel that will be required during the lifetime of a plant, which is 5.13 $/kg heavy metal. Compared with the other unit costs of the fuel cycle components, it is expected that DUPIC fuel handling has only a minor effect on the overall fuel cycle cost.