JOPSS - Search Results

Journal Articles

Safety and economics of uranium utilization for nuclear power generation

Fukaya, Yuji

Uranium; Safety, Resources, Separation and Thermodynamic Calculation, p.22 - 48, 2018/05

https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.72647

Safety and economics of uranium utilization for nuclear power generation were investigated and discussed. In order to sustain energy supply with nuclear power generation, uranium resources should be abundant. From the viewpoint of depletion of the resources, FBR, which is breeder reactor of plutonium, has been developed, but that has been not diffused as a commercial reactor yet. Instead of obtaining inexhaustible resources by breeding plutonium, it is known that the inherent safety feature becomes weak in the fast neutron spectrum. As the result of the investigation, it is confirmed with concrete FBR designs that the inherent safety feature and breeding ability are related to the transactions. The amount of uranium resources and electricity generation cost with the resources were investigated. It is concluded that the semi-permanently sustainable energy supply can be established with reasonable cost by using seawater uranium. In addition, the significance of P&T, which is one of the advantages of FBR, was also discussed from the viewpoint of environmental burden from radioactive waste.

Journal Articles

Proposals of new basic concepts on safety and radioactive waste and of new high temperature gas-cooled reactor based on these basic concepts

Ogawa, Masuro

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 308, p.133 - 141, 2016/11

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2016.08.028

Times Cited Count：2 Percentile：19.57(Nuclear Science & Technology)

A new basic concept on safety; Not causing any serious catastrophe by any means and a new basic concept on radioactive waste; Not returning any waste that possibly affects the environment are proposed in the present study, aiming at nuclear power plants which everybody can accept, in consideration of the serious catastrophe that happened at Fukushima in 2011. In the present study, physical phenomena are used to continue confining, rather than confine. To continue confining is meant to apply natural correction to fulfill inherent safety function. Fission products must be detoxified to realize the new basic concept on radioactive waste, aiming at the final processing and disposal of radioactive wastes as same as that in the other wastes such as PCB. The New HTGR is proposed based on the new basic concepts. It is indicated that the New HTGR can response to social requirements for safety and environmental conservability against radioactive wastes, industrial requirements for economy, uranium resource sustainability and so on, and national requirements for non-proliferation and environmental protection against carbon dioxide.

Journal Articles