Future Prospects for CANDU Advanced Fuel Cycles

Abstract

The pace and focus of the CANDU advanced fuel cycle program will be influenced by a number of world-wide trends and opportunities. These include the status of uranium production and resources, the slower pace of nuclear expansion, the delay in deployment of fast breeder reactors by several decades, and the growing stockpile of light water reactor (LUR) spent fuel. Development of SEU cycles and the CANFLEX fuel bundle is the next logical step for CANDU. The demonstration of high burnup cycles is an essential step for all potential advanced cycles in CANDU and must be executed as soon as possible. Tandem cycles offer the possibility of LWR-CANDU symbiosis using a proven reactor technology and a range of fuel recycle options which, in some cases, utilize modifications of existing or near-developed technology. stockpile of light water reactor (LWR) spent fuel. These are explored in more detail below. Uranium Resources and SUDD~Y A perspective on uranium resources and needs is given on Table 1 (taken from Reference 2) for the world excluding the centrally-planned economies (CPE). The annual natural uranium requirements for the years 1985 and 2000 are compared with two levels of resources taken from the 1986 "Redbook" (Reference 3). Only uranium resources recoverable at a cost up to $130 US/kgU have been considered. The ratio of the resources to the annual requirement gives the resource lifetime i.e. the length of time the resources would last at that annual consumption rate.