The Economics of Alternative Fuel Cycles on Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors and Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analysis of Cost Estimates

The Economics of Alternative Fuel Cycles on Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors and Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analysis of Cost Estimates
Author: Genevieve Virgina Russo
Publisher:
Total Pages: 79
Release: 2010
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Previous work was done to create a baseline capital cost model for the SFR in which case studies were performed to identify ways to decrease the capital costs while maintaining safety and performance. This thesis expands on the capital cost model to include uncertainty analysis, as well as performing qualitative cost evaluations for the fuel cycle and O & M costs. An uncertainty model was developed from the available data for capital account costs, the point estimate and the contingency. After evaluating several alternative uncertainty models, a reasonable model was created by assuming the capital account costs to be lognormal distributions and assigning the point estimate as the 10th percentile and the contingency amount as the standard deviation for each of the accounts. The resulting Total Capital Cost distribution fits the mental model of cost estimating practices for Engineering, Procurement and Constructor (EPC) contractors. The Total Cost Distribution determined in this thesis has the best estimate without contingency below the 10th percentile, the best estimate plus contingency near the 50 th percentile, and the 90 th percentile equal to 110% of the best estimate plus contingency. Statistical analysis was performed on the SFR capital cost distribution and an assumed LWR capital cost distribution. The purpose of this exercise was to determine the statistical significance of the difference between the expected LWR and SFR capital costs for given mean costs and standard deviations. The result is that the estimated cost of the SFR is greater than the expected LWR cost and the difference is statistically significant. While the capital cost distributions for the two reactors overlap, the methodology provides a way to quantify the differences. While fuel cycle costs for the reprocessing alternatives, aqueous and pyroprocessing, are largely unknown, a comparison was made between the two based on several factors that could influence the cost: capital costs, waste streams, proliferation concerns, and technology readiness to inform the fuel choices for SFRs - namely oxide or metallic from a fuel cycle perspective. As a result, the aqueous process is thought to be more economical based on proven technology, reduced and lower cost waste streams, and the process costs of reprocessing and fuel fabrication. Other factors, such as the symbiotic relationship between LWRs and SFRs and the location of the facility, could have significant effects on the fuel cycle cost component of the total cost of electricity for an SFR. Centralized facilities have economic advantages in fuel cycle cost savings and depending on how spent fuel from light water reactors is treated - namely as a cost to the utility for removal, it could be a fuel cycle savings for SFRs. Based on SFR operating experience, there have been several O & M issues unique to the SFR design which have the potential to increase O & M costs. Past operating experience is not encouraging but if the lessons learned are applied in design, such as ease of inspection, monitoring, and ease of replacement of known troublesome equipment, the expectation is that there should be no inherent O & M cost differentials between LWRs and SFRs if best practices are followed. The choice of fuel type for SFRs, namely metal or oxide, is left to other operating plant capital cost decisions based on risk informed safety analyses.

Power Generation Costs for Alternate Reactor Fuel Cycles

Power Generation Costs for Alternate Reactor Fuel Cycles
Author:
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Total Pages:
Release: 1980
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The total electric generating costs at the power plant busbar are estimated for various nuclear reactor fuel cycles which may be considered for power generation in the future. The reactor systems include pressurized water reactors (PWR), heavy-water reactors (HWR), high-temperature gas cooled reactors (HTGR), liquid-metal fast breeder reactors (LMFBR), light-water pre-breeder and breeder reactors (LWPR, LWBR), and a fast mixed spectrum reactor (FMSR). Fuel cycles include once-through, uranium-only recycle, and full recycle of the uranium and plutonium in the spent fuel assemblies. The U3O price for economic transition from once-through LWR fuel cycles to both PWR recycle and LMFBR systems is estimated. Electric power generation costs were determined both for a reference set of unit cost parameters and for a range of uncertainty in these parameters. In addition, cost sensitivity parameters are provided so that independent estimations can be made for alternate cost assumptions.

Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis of Nuclear Data for the Metallic-Fueled ABR-1000 Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor

Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis of Nuclear Data for the Metallic-Fueled ABR-1000 Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor
Author: Jun Shi
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2016
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The 1000 MWt Advanced Burner Reactor (ABR-1000) is a concept of Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) developed at Argonne National Laboratory for the study of future reactor designs under the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) program. It was investigated within the OECD/NEA Working Party on Reactor Systems (WPRS) under the Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor core Feed-back and Transient response (SFR-FT) task force benchmark, which was completed in 2014. The results revealed that different nuclear data libraries contribute to the large discrepancies in some calculated neutronic parameters. This task force is followed up by another on-going OECD/NEA WPRS activity entitled as SFR Uncertainty Analysis in Modeling (SFR-UAM). In order to further investigate the properties of the ABR core, the impact of nuclear data uncertainties on the performance of a SFR is analyzed in detail in this master thesis using a "Best Estimate Plus Uncertainty" (BEPU) approach along with the nuclear data from the ENDF/B-VII.1 library. Several computer codes, including MC2-3, TWODANT, DIF3D, REBUS-3, PERSENT, DPT, and SAS4A/SASSYS-1, were used in this study. Significant uncertainties on neutronic parameters (e.g., sodium density coefficient, sodium void coefficient, structure density coefficient, Doppler coefficient) are found due to nuclear data, but thanks to the excellent reactor design, the margins to sodium boiling and fuel melting during the accidents are still large even if these non-negligible nuclear data uncertainties are considered.

Sensitivity Analysis of Reprocessing Cooling Times on Light Water Reactor and Sodium Fast Reactor Fuel Cycles

Sensitivity Analysis of Reprocessing Cooling Times on Light Water Reactor and Sodium Fast Reactor Fuel Cycles
Author:
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Total Pages:
Release: 2008
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The purpose of this study is to quantify the effects of variations of the Light Water Reactor (LWR) Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) and fast reactor reprocessing cooling time on a Sodium Fast Reactor (SFR) assuming a single-tier fuel cycle scenario. The results from this study show the effects of different cooling times on the SFR's transuranic (TRU) conversion ratio (CR) and transuranic fuel enrichment. Also, the decay heat, gamma heat and neutron emission of the SFR's fresh fuel charge were evaluated. A 1000 MWth commercial-scale SFR design was selected as the baseline in this study. Both metal and oxide CR=0.50 SFR designs are investigated.

The Future of Nuclear Fuel Cycle

The Future of Nuclear Fuel Cycle
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2011
Genre: Energy policy
ISBN: 9780982800843

"In this analysis we have presented a method that provides insight into future fuel cycle alternatives by clarifying the complexity of choosing an appropriate fuel cycle in the context of the distribution of burdens and benefits between generations. The current nuclear power deployment practices, together with three future fuel cycles were assessed."--Page 227.