BACK-END SCENARIOS FOR THE FRENCH NUCLEAR FLEET Caroline DREVON Areva, Back-end Michel PAYS EDF, Fuel Cycle Division Bernard BOULLIS CEA, Nuclear Energy Division Sino-French Seminar Building up an Advanced Back-End Industry Beijing, 5 November 2015 PAGE 1
(UOX 1000t) (REU 80t) (MOX 120t) Fuel fabrication LWRs used MOX #120t RECYCLING used REU #80t used UOX 1000 t depleted uranium 7000t depleted RU 860t Uranium enrichment Uranium Conversion Plutonium #10t WASTE FPs & MAs #50 t Uranium (RU) #940 t natural U 8000 t Mining and milling THE PRINCIPLE OF THE FRENCH FUEL CYCLE (rough amounts,per year)
FUTURE NUCLEAR SYSTEMS : GENERATION IV REQUIREMENTS - 1 - SAFETY - 2 COST-EFFECTIVENESS - 3 - SUSTAINABILITY: - - NATURAL RESOURCE PRESERVATION - - WASTE MINIMIZATION - - PROLIFERATION RESISTANCE - and PUBLIC ACCEPTANCE
CURRENT RECYCLING STRATEGY: Natural resource savings and used fuel management Resource savings Valuable nuclear materials (U, ) are recovered and recycled About 15% of French nuclear electricity today from recycled materials Cumulated savings (2015): 25000 tons Resources kept out of the waste, available for future developments Used fuel management Thanks to recycling, interim storage is reduced by 19000 tons Reduction by a factor of 6 of present accumulation rate Unat annual savings (%) Unat annual savings (%)
used UOX : 2013 : 12000 t (# stabilized) used MOX : 2013: 1500 tons (increasing 120 tons/year) 2035 : 4000t ( about # 250t ) used REU : 2013 :420 t 2035 :1800 t depleted U: 2013 : 290 000 t 2035: 450 000 t CURRENT RECYCLING STRATEGY : THE NATIONAL INVENTORY, 2015 (ANDRA)
WHY FAST NEUTRON REACTORS? Fission/Absorpti 1.00 0.90 0.80 0.70 0.60 0.50 0.40 0.30 0.20 0.10 0.00 U235 U238 Np237 238 239 240 241 242 Am241 Am243 Cm244 Robert N. Hill 233 rd ACS National Meeting Chicago,, 2007 PWR SFR burning in FRs favors fission, allowing multi-recycle www.cea.fr (1) Systematic U & recycle, (2) in fast neutron reactors - for a sustainable management of nuclear materials & waste, - avoiding increasing of -bearing stockpiles, - opening the way to a drastic extension of the use of U resource
PLUTONIUM MULTI-RECYCLE 238 isotop fromuox frommox 238 2.48 3.8 239 53.3 39.9 240 24.8 31.1 241 12.1 13.4 242 7.3 11.8 recycle in LWRs 4,5% 4,0% 3,5% 3,0% 2,5% 2,0% 1,5% 1,0% 0,5% UOX 2020 100% MOX8,7 PAGE 7 0,0% 2020 2040 2060 2080 239 65% 60% 55% 50% 45% 40% UOX 2020 35% 100% MOX8,7 30% 2020 2040 2060 2080 242 241 240 16% 14% 12% 10% 8% 6% 4% 2% 0% 2020 2040 2060 2080 10% 9% 8% UOX 2020 7% 100% MOX8,7 6% 5% 4% 3% 2% 1% 0% 2020 2040 2060 2080 36% 34% 32% 30% 28% 26% 24% 22% UOX 2020 100% MOX8,7 UOX 2020 100% MOX8,7 20% 2020 2040 2060 2080
FROM CURRENT FUEL CYCLE TO FAST REACTORS FUEL CYCLES stored in MOX SNF to launch FR deployement 50t 8000t CURRENT FRENCH FUEL CYCLE (LIGHT WATER REACTORS) WHICH TRANSITION SCENARIOS? 50t 50t WHICH OPTIMAL (SYNERGISTIC) SYSTEM? URANIUM-PLUTONIUM MULTIRECYCLE (FAST NEUTRON REACTORS)
FR REACTORS DEPLOYMENT : THE FORMER VIEWS (?) # 60 GWe (life-time Life-time extension) extension Current fleet FR LWR # 2040
FR REACTORS DEPLOYMENT: CURRENT SCENARIO STUDIES # 60 GWe Current fleet LWR 1 3 Stage 1: recycle used LWR-MOX a few FR needed (3 5 GWe?) Used MOX-LWR amount stabilized Natural U FR LWR-UOX LWR-MOX FR-MOX 2020 2050 2075 2100 Used FR-MOX
FR REACTORS DEPLOYMENT: CURRENT SCENARIO STUDIES # 60 GWe Stage 2: recycle FR- MOX More FR needed ( #20 GWe) Current fleet LWR 2 multi-recycled 3 amount stabilized FR FR Natural U LWR-UOX LWR-MOX FR-MOX 3 Used FR-MOX 1 2020 2050
FR REACTORS DEPLOYMENT: CURRENT SCENARIO STUDIES # 60 GWe 3 FR-MOX Current fleet LWR 3 LWR-MOX FR-MOX 1 2 FR Stage 3: only MOX fuels No natural uranium needs More FR needed (# >40 GWe) 2020 2050
FR REACTORS DEPLOYMENT: CURRENT SCENARIO STUDIES EDF-AREVA-CEA joint studies # 60 GWe Current fleet LWR 3 Stage 3: only MOX fuels No natural uranium needs More FR needed (# >40 GWe) 1 2 Stage 2: multi-recycle FR- MOX More FR needed ( #20 GWe) amount stabilized FR 2029 ASTRID demonstrator # 2050 Stage 1: recycle used LWR-MOX a few FR needed (3 5 GWe?) Used MOX-LWR amount stabilized
FR REACTORS DEPLOYMENT: CURRENT SCENARIO STUDIES EDF-AREVA-CEA joint studies # 60 GWe LWR 3 Current fleet UP2 -UP3 UOX recycle 1 2 UP4 LWR-MOX recycle FR-MOX fabrication UP5 FR-MOX recycle FR
FUEL CYCLE OPTIONS PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT (1) NUCLEAR MATERIALS RNR share (GWe %) Natural U consumption (t/y) net Production (t/y) OPEN CYCLE MONO- RECYCLE LWR BI- RECYCLE LWR (FR) MULTI- RECYCLE LWR - FR MULTI- RECYCLE no U needs 0 0 % 5% 40% 100% 8000 6500 6000 2500 0 + 10,5 + 7,5 + 7 0 0 FR Used fuels amount (t/y) + 1000 UOX + 160 MOX+REU + 100 RNR+REU stabilized stabilized (tons / year) CEA, report to French government, July 2015 (scenario studies,areva-edf-cea, 420 TWh/year)
FUEL CYCLE OPTIONS PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT (2) REPOSITORY FOOTPRINT REPOSITORY FOOTPRINT (HLW sockets) HLW ILW OPEN CYCLE MONORECYCLE BI-RECYCLE MULTIRECYCLE MULTIRECYCLE LWR LWR LWR-FR FR All TRU- FR HLW WASTE FOOTPRINT (m 2 /TWh) 490 150 170 170 20 USED FUELS POTENTIAL ADDITIONAL FOOTPRINT(m 2 /TWh) 0 180 120 0 0 GLOBAL POTENTIAL FOOTPRINT (m 2 /TWh) 490 330 290 170 20 CEA, report to the French government, July 2015 (scenario studies,areva-edf-cea, 420 TWh/year) (HAVL footprintestimatesfromandra-cea former studies)
CONCLUSION > Reprocessing and recycling today: - - well-proven technologies, at commercial scale - - thanks to important R&D (research & industrial bodies) - - provides significant benefits: - natural resource savings - optimization of final waste management - mastering plutonium inventory > A first step towards more and more sustainable systems - a step by step approach, - with the progressive deployment of generation IV reactors (for full burning, natural uranium utilization drastic increase, long-lived elements transmutation )