An Evaluation of cost reduction advantages of nuclear-fuel-recycling complex

not registered

A design study of separate recycling plants was at first carried out based on a recycling complex design. The former is made up of an independently operating reprocessing plant and an independently operating fuel-manufacturing plant, the latter is a complex of reprocessing and manufacturing of nuclear fuel in one building. Comparisons were then made between the separate recycling plants and the recycling complex to clarify cost reduction advantages of the nuclear-fuel-recycling complex. The following results are presented. (1)The separate reprocessing plant requires storage and shipping facilities of its product, and the separate fuel-manufacturing plant requires receiving and storage facilities of the product. (2)The totals of the areas and volumes of the main buildings of the separate plants are about 30% larger than those of the complex. (3)The total of the construction costs of the separate plants is about 30% higher than that of the complex. About a half of the additional cost is due to the addition of the facilities. From the point of view of cost reduction advantages of a recycling complex, the results show that a recycling complex would be built at a reduction of about 20 % from construction costs of separate plants, because storage, shipping, and receiving facilities will be made redundant for the complex. The results also suggest that construction cost reduction of about 10 % would be expected for a recycling plant made up of two buildings that are connected each other with a trench.