Peaks and valleys

摘要

Many advanced reactor designs using HALEU fuel would require less frequent refueling than today's LWRs. A research team at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, led by graduate student and ANS Board of Directors member Amanda Bachmann, recently published the results of a simulation of five fuel cycle scenarios through 2090, quantifying the front-end material requirements under scenarios that replace retiring LWRs with X-energy's Xe-100 modular reactor, Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation's Micro Modular Reactor (MMR), or new LWRs. This graph, taken from Scenario 2, in which LWRs are gradually replaced by a fleet of MMRs beginning in 2031, illustrates how the predictable refueling cycles of LWRs from 1990 to about 2030 would give way to "peaks and valleys" of demand in a potential HALEU market.