Time to take stock of the fuel cycle

摘要

The nuclear fuel cycles in use today are the result of four decades of technological development, but the basic elements of these fuel cycles were established a long time ago, when the ground rules and development objectives were different. Developments in the fuel cycle were initially driven by the needs of the defence industry, and later by the type of nuclear power plant chosen in each country. Decisions taken then still affect the industry. In the 1970s nuclear power was perceived as the solution to dwindling fossil fuel reserves and uranium was also considered a scarce commodity. To meet the needs of a large military programme and an anticipated growth in nuclear power, large facilities were constructed for all the stages of the fuel cycle and in some countries reprocessing facilities were developed. But after the slowdown in civilian nuclear power development and agreements to reduce nuclear weapons programmes, production capacities at fuel cycle facilities, with the exception of uranium mining, exceed demand.