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Advanced Reactors with Innovative Fuels Nuclear Science Advanced Reactors with Innovative Fuels Workshop Proceedings Villigen, Switzerland 21-23 October 1998 NUCLEAR•ENERGY•AGENCY OECD, 1999. Software: 1987-1996, Acrobat is a trademark of ADOBE. All rights reserved. OECD grants you the right to use one copy of this Program for your personal use only. Unauthorised reproduction, lending, hiring, transmission or distribution of any data or software is prohibited. You must treat the Program and associated materials and any elements thereof like any other copyrighted material. All requests should be made to: Head of Publications Service, OECD Publications Service, 2, rue AndrÂe-Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France. OECD PROCEEDINGS Proceedings of the Workshop on Advanced Reactors with Innovative Fuels hosted by Villigen, Switzerland 21-23 October 1998 NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT Pursuant to Article 1 of the Convention signed in Paris on 14th December 1960, and which came into force on 30th September 1961, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shall promote policies designed: − to achieve the highest sustainable economic growth and employment and a rising standard of living in Member countries, while maintaining financial stability, and thus to contribute to the development of the world economy; − to contribute to sound economic expansion in Member as well as non-member countries in the process of economic development; and − to contribute to the expansion of world trade on a multilateral, non-discriminatory basis in accordance with international obligations. The original Member countries of the OECD are Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The following countries became Members subsequently through accession at the dates indicated hereafter; Japan (28th April 1964), Finland (28th January 1969), Australia (7th June 1971), New Zealand (29th May 1973), Mexico (18th May 1994), the Czech Republic (21st December 1995), Hungary (7th May 1996), Poland (22nd November 1996) and the Republic of Korea (12th December 1996). The Commission of the European Communities takes part in the work of the OECD (Article 13 of the OECD Convention). NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) was established on 1st February 1958 under the name of OEEC European Nuclear Energy Agency. It received its present designation on 20th April 1972, when Japan became its first non-European full Member. NEA membership today consists of all OECD Member countries, except New Zealand and Poland. The Commission of the European Communities takes part in the work of the Agency. The primary objective of the NEA is to promote co-operation among the governments of its participating countries in furthering the development of nuclear power as a safe, environmentally acceptable and economic energy source. This is achieved by: − encouraging harmonization of national regulatory policies and practices, with particular reference to the safety of nuclear installations, protection of man against ionising radiation and preservation of the environment, radioactive waste management, and nuclear third party liability and insurance; − assessing the contribution of nuclear power to the overall energy supply by keeping under review the technical and economic aspects of nuclear power growth and forecasting demand and supply for the different phases of the nuclear fuel cycle; − developing exchanges of scientific and technical information particularly through participation in common services; − setting up international research and development programmes and joint undertakings. In these and related tasks, the NEA works in close collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, with which it has concluded a Co-operation Agreement, as well as with other international organisations in the nuclear field. © OECD 1999 Permission to reproduce a portion of this work for non-commercial purposes or classroom use should be obtained through the Centre français d’exploitation du droit de copie (CCF), 20, rue des Grands-Augustins, 75006 Paris, France, Tel. (33-1) 44 07 47 70, Fax (33-1) 46 34 67 19, for every country except the United States. In the United States permission should be obtained through the Copyright Clearance Center, Customer Service, (508)750-8400, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA, or CCC Online: http://www.copyright.com/. All other applications for permission to reproduce or translate all or part of this book should be made to OECD Publications, 2, rue André-Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France. FOREWORD Nuclear power plants operating today utilise about 1% of the energy potential of the uranium they use as fuel, namely the part that is easily and economically extractable with standard technology. What is left is called in present terminology “spent fuel”. There has been an ongoing debate – already lasting several decades – as to what to do with this spent fuel. Past projections based on the resources and forecasts of energy requirements world-wide predicted a rapid depletion of uranium resources. Fast reactor programmes were then developed as a means of extracting a larger proportion of the energy potential from uranium and its derivatives present in the spent fuel. Some countries consequently embarked into spent fuel reprocessing and recycling. Additionally, the oil crisis of 1973 led to strengthening nuclear power programmes. Since then, several events have changed the picture. First the Three Mile Island accident, then the catastrophe of Chernobyl and the concerns as presented in the media disenchanted public opinion. A period of both hidden and open hostility to nuclear energy emerged in the general public. Since then, a great effort has been invested in research and development for improving safety in nuclear power plants; all of these plants have consequently been modernised. The opening of energy markets world-wide added a strong short-term economical competition component; nuclear power had to adapt, improve technology and reduce costs. The development of advanced nuclear power systems was accordingly slowed down. Nuclear power represents a substantial share of electricity production (about one quarter in the OECD area), but is only about 5% of the total energy used world-wide. The largest part of this energy comes from fossil fuels. Fossil fuel resources are quite large, but their extensive use feeds the concern that they could contribute to a possible global warming of the atmosphere through greenhouse emissions and to climate change. Satellites have observed intercontinental movements of pollution clouds stemming mostly from fossil fuel combustion. One such pollution cloud was recently discovered hovering over the Indian Ocean, its size being roughly the area of the continental United States. Far reaching environmental impacts could result. Within the OECD and elsewhere the issues of “sustainable development” are addressed covering environmental, economic and social aspects. Such issues also encompass availability of resources. In fact, shortages of or difficulty in accessing resources have often been at the origin of conflicts. Can nuclear energy play a role and contribute to sustainable development? In the nuclear field the question has been raised as to whether it is ethically acceptable to skim off 1% of the energy potential from uranium and declare the remaining 99% as waste. Do we have the right to deplete energy resources in this way without considering the requirements of future generations? Are there other ways of utilising the huge potential of uranium and other nuclear fuels such as thorium in accordance with the criteria of sustainable development? In order to be able to answer such questions in an objective way it is necessary to identify, based on the most recent technological evolutions, what possibilities do exist, what their characteristics are, and to what extent they meet established safety, economical and environmental criteria. A sound scientific-technical knowledge base first needs to be established, which can be called upon by policy and decision makers. 3 The Nuclear Science Committee of the OECD/NEA intends to contribute to building such a sound knowledge base. One step in this direction is the Workshop on Advanced Reactors with Innovative Fuel Cycles. This workshop was hosted by the Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland, from 21-23 October 1998. The proceedings of the workshop, including panel discussions on the role international organisations should play in this context, are presented here. This text is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The views expressed do not necessarily correspond to those of the national authorities concerned. In memory of... ï Pedro Landeyro ð Pedro Landeyro had wished to participate and contribute to the ARWIF’98 workshop. His illness did not permit him to do so. Though he was unable to be present at the workshop, he had hoped to submit a completed article to be published in the proceedings. He was unfortunately unable to finish this last project. He died on 9 December 1998. Pedro had submitted an extended abstract for ARWIF’98 containing some of his results. Though incomplete, we are including this work in the proceedings. In doing so, we wish to pay tribute to Pedro for
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