POSSIBILITY OF LONG-TERM NUCLEAR POWER DEVELOPMENT BASED ON TODAY'S TECHNOLOGY

摘要

The possibility of long-term nuclear power development with a uranium fuel cycle based on ~(238)U burnup and today's industrial technology is investigated. It is shown that such development is possible with fast reactors, including with sodium coolant. In this case, incomplete fuel reprocessing is admissable in a closed fuel cycle employing a pyroelectrochemical technology, which allows some fission products and actinides to be present in the fresh fuel prepared for reloading after reprocessing. These fission products and actinides can be burned in a reactor, thereby decreasing the quantity of radioactive wastes compared with the complete reprocessing with chemical separation of the fuel elements and decreasing the radiation load on the environment.