Impact of fast reactor fuel type on backend processes in the nuclear fuel cycle

竹下 健二*; 岡村 知拓*; 中瀬 正彦*; 阿部 拓海; 西原 健司

Progress in Nuclear Science and Technology (Internet), 8, p.52 - 57, 2025/09

https://doi.org/10.15669/pnst.8.52

This study analyzed minor actinide (MA) inventory in scenarios assuming demonstration and subsequent commercialization of fast reactor (FR) in the mid-21st century, focusing on the characteristics of reprocessing processes in oxide and metal fuel FR cycles. At the end of the evaluation period defined in this study, the transition of MA to waste was 138 tons in the oxide fuel FR cycle without an MA separation process, requiring a footprint of geological repository of 3.01 km. In contrast, in the metal fuel FR cycle, when only spent fuel discharged from the FR was subjected to pyro-reprocessing, the MA transition to waste was nearly identical to that of the oxide FR cycle. However, when spent MOX fuel discharged from light water reactor (LWR) was also reduced to metal and processed by the pyro reprocessing, the MA transition decreased to 93 tons, with a correspondingly reduced footprint of 2.12 km2. The results show a strong link between MA transition to waste and repository footprint, highlighting the potential of metal fuel FR cycles which can reduce demand of final disposal by the metallization and pyro-reprocessing of spent MOX fuel from the LWR fuel cycle.