Considerations of factors in the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle
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School of Science |
Master's thesis
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Date
2011
Department
Major/Subject
Ydin- ja energiatekniikka
Mcode
Tfy-56
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
137
Series
Abstract
This thesis examines the whole front end of the nuclear fuel cycle. The first focus of the thesis is ill exploring literature. The relevance and inevitability of nuclear energy is introduced. All the procurement steps are discussed at first separately examining history, techniques, physics and markets, and secondly together trying to figure the balance between supply and demand in the history and in the future scenarios by underlining eight factors that have an effect on the balance. The eight factors are divided into two categories; four quantitative primary factors and four factors affected by political and technical issues. The second focus of the thesis is to estimate the development of nuclear fuel costs based on calculated and simulated data, and data from the literature, and to create scenarios for the future. The price of nuclear fuel cumulates during the front end steps. The front end step costs are discussed separately and combined. The bases for future scenarios are extrapolations of historical discharge burn-up evolution in LWR reactors, presented by OECD/NEA, and estimated connection between average discharge burn-up and average enrichment assay. The effect of variations in the front end step prices is compared to the effect of other factors, which have effects on the fuel consumption. It is found that a 10 % increase in uranium concentrate and enrichment prices has an effect of circa 4 % on the total fuel procurement price, respectively, but an effect of natural uranium conversion price increase is only circa 0.3 %. The scenario predicts that the fuel cost proportion in electricity production with nuclear power in 2025 is between 6.15 $/MWh<sub>e</sub> and 8.72 $/MWh<sub>e</sub> (circa 7.05 $/MWh<sub>e</sub> in 2010).Description
Supervisor
Salomaa, RainerThesis advisor
Purra, TuulaKeywords
uranium, uraani, nuclear fuel, ydinpolttoaine, nuclear energy, ydinenergia, nuclear fuel cycle, ydinpolttoaineketju, uranium mining, uraanin louhinta, concentrates, raakauraani, conversion, luonnonuraani, isotope separation, konversio, enrichment, isotooppirikastus, uranium markets, uraanimarkkinat, diversified procurement, hajautettu hankintaketju, safeguards, ydinmateriaalivalvonta