Analysis of the costs of spent nuclear fuel management in Spain: The Marino model

摘要

In Spain, after almost a decade of delay in the construction of a centralised interim storage facility, the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) context has suffered a significant change. Thus, the aim of this article is to present the Marino model, which analyses the costs of different back-end scenarios by means of the net present value and the material flows calculation, in order to re-examine the SNF management strategy for Spain and to help determine which alternative suits better this new context.The current strategy was analysed opposed to two direct disposal alternatives and a reprocessing option. The results show that the scenario of direct disposal without a centralised interim storage facility would decrease the current strategy costs about a 39%. Also, an alternative design for such facility could entail a 29% cost reduction. However, a reprocessing strategy could increase the costs about 140%, but if some assumptions of the scenario are changed, the costs could be significantly reduced. Additionally, an increase of the NPPs operational lifetime would decrease the levelized costs of all scenarios, which emphasises the economic advantage of longer operational lifetimes. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.