Actinides and depleted uranium as an alternative for sustainable nuclear energy in thermal reactors

IF 3.2 3区工程技术 Q1 NUCLEAR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Progress in Nuclear Energy Pub Date : 2025-09-22 DOI:10.1016/j.pnucene.2025.106057

Guilherme Valdir Marchiori da Silva, Lucas Vinicius Gonçalves Chaves, Claubia Pereira

{"title":"Actinides and depleted uranium as an alternative for sustainable nuclear energy in thermal reactors","authors":"Guilherme Valdir Marchiori da Silva, Lucas Vinicius Gonçalves Chaves, Claubia Pereira","doi":"10.1016/j.pnucene.2025.106057","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Spent fuel reprocessing can be an alternative to address the environmental and social challenges associated with nuclear energy. This study investigates the use of depleted uranium, stored at the beginning of the cycle, in the spiking with the reprocessed fuel, eliminating the need for mining new fuel or thorium for spiking. Additionally, the radiotoxicity of burned recycled nuclear fuels is analyzed, and their composition is compared with that of thorium and depleted uranium, demonstrating that the use of both results in similar radiotoxicity characteristics. The work also reinforces the use of methods GANEX and UREX + due to the efficiency of proliferation risks compared to PUREX. The results show that the amount of spent fuel in a cycle and the depleted uranium stored in the beginning of the cycle are sufficient to constitute a reprocessed fuel to be inserted in the reactor. There is no big difference between the material required for the proliferative resistance methods and PUREX. The DU-spiked reprocessed fuels behave more similarly to standard UOx regarding radiotoxicity and decay heat, whereas Th-spiked fuels exhibit higher long-term radiological impact due to U-233 production. Depleted uranium in reprocessing offers environmental and waste management advantages, while proliferation resistant methods such as GANEX and UREX + enhance safety and societal acceptance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20617,"journal":{"name":"Progress in Nuclear Energy","volume":"191 ","pages":"Article 106057"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Progress in Nuclear Energy","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014919702500455X","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"NUCLEAR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Spent fuel reprocessing can be an alternative to address the environmental and social challenges associated with nuclear energy. This study investigates the use of depleted uranium, stored at the beginning of the cycle, in the spiking with the reprocessed fuel, eliminating the need for mining new fuel or thorium for spiking. Additionally, the radiotoxicity of burned recycled nuclear fuels is analyzed, and their composition is compared with that of thorium and depleted uranium, demonstrating that the use of both results in similar radiotoxicity characteristics. The work also reinforces the use of methods GANEX and UREX + due to the efficiency of proliferation risks compared to PUREX. The results show that the amount of spent fuel in a cycle and the depleted uranium stored in the beginning of the cycle are sufficient to constitute a reprocessed fuel to be inserted in the reactor. There is no big difference between the material required for the proliferative resistance methods and PUREX. The DU-spiked reprocessed fuels behave more similarly to standard UOx regarding radiotoxicity and decay heat, whereas Th-spiked fuels exhibit higher long-term radiological impact due to U-233 production. Depleted uranium in reprocessing offers environmental and waste management advantages, while proliferation resistant methods such as GANEX and UREX + enhance safety and societal acceptance.

查看原文本刊更多论文

锕系元素和贫铀作为热反应堆中可持续核能的替代品

乏燃料后处理可以作为解决与核能相关的环境和社会挑战的替代方案。这项研究调查了在循环开始时储存的贫铀与后处理的燃料一起使用，从而消除了开采新燃料或钍的需要。此外，还分析了燃烧的再生核燃料的放射毒性，并将其成分与钍和贫铀的成分进行了比较，表明两者的使用产生了相似的放射毒性特征。这项工作还加强了GANEX和UREX +方法的使用，因为与PUREX相比，它们的增殖风险效率更高。结果表明，循环中的乏燃料量和循环开始时储存的贫铀足以构成插入反应堆的后处理燃料。抗增殖方法和PUREX所需的材料没有太大区别。在放射性毒性和衰变热方面，含铀再加工燃料的表现与标准UOx更相似，而含钍燃料由于U-233的产生而表现出更高的长期放射性影响。贫铀后处理具有环境和废物管理优势，而GANEX和UREX +等防扩散方法提高了安全性和社会接受度。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Progress in Nuclear Energy 工程技术-核科学技术

CiteScore

5.30

自引率

14.80%

发文量

331

审稿时长

3.5 months

期刊介绍： Progress in Nuclear Energy is an international review journal covering all aspects of nuclear science and engineering. In keeping with the maturity of nuclear power, articles on safety, siting and environmental problems are encouraged, as are those associated with economics and fuel management. However, basic physics and engineering will remain an important aspect of the editorial policy. Articles published are either of a review nature or present new material in more depth. They are aimed at researchers and technically-oriented managers working in the nuclear energy field. Please note the following: 1) PNE seeks high quality research papers which are medium to long in length. Short research papers should be submitted to the journal Annals in Nuclear Energy. 2) PNE reserves the right to reject papers which are based solely on routine application of computer codes used to produce reactor designs or explain existing reactor phenomena. Such papers, although worthy, are best left as laboratory reports whereas Progress in Nuclear Energy seeks papers of originality, which are archival in nature, in the fields of mathematical and experimental nuclear technology, including fission, fusion (blanket physics, radiation damage), safety, materials aspects, economics, etc. 3) Review papers, which may occasionally be invited, are particularly sought by the journal in these fields.