Spent fuel management - options available for the Polish Nuclear Power Programme

Operation of nuclear power plants to be developed in Poland will produce spent fuel in the amount of between 6,000 and 8,000 MgU* (depending of the selected reactor type). Issues related to dissipating of decay heat from spent fuel temporarily stored in water-filled or dry bunkers will be discussed. Three strategies to manage spent fuel will be analysed:

1. to store suitably protected spent fuel in a deep geological repository;
2. to re-process spent fuel in order to separate plutonium and to produce MOX-type nuclear fuel (mixture of plutonium dioxide and depleted uranium dioxide) to be used in power reactors, then to store spent MOX fuel together with high activity waste produced during the processing in a geological repository;
3. to recycle spent fuel in 4th generation breeders in order to fully burn all TRUs (TRans Uranium elements: Np, Pu, Am, Cm, Bk and Cf) and to store in a deep geological repository practically only some fission products (suitably protected).

Evaluation of the above listed strategies is based (among others) on the involved radiotoxicity. That latter notion will be in detail discussed during the lecture.

* Spent fuel is quantified by mass of uranium in fresh fuel. In US, that mass is expressed in MTU (metric ton of uranium). In Polish power industry that mass is usually expressed in Mg (Mega grams).

Professor Ludwik Dobrzyński

Świerk may be reached by our bus leaving at 10.15 from entrance gate to the 69, Hoża str. premises in Warsaw.