OPPORTUNITY AND CHALLENGE OF MOX FUEL APPLICATION IN CHINA

In this paper, the opportunity and challenge for application of MOX fuel in China are discussed. With the great demand of energy to develop economy of China, the government plans to achieve 58GW installed capacity and 30GW installing capacity in nuclear power before 2020. China needs about 81,306t similar to 102,613t nature Uranium to support the nuclear power developing project at that time. For the obvious reason, China should insist on closed fuel cycle to recover the fissionable materials in the spent fuel. China will build its first spent fuel reprocessing factory to supply MOX fuel to PWRs and FRs. Both government and nuclear companies put more and more enthusiasm into the application of MOX fuel. However, China is also suffered from great challenges of MOX fuel application, such as the spent fuel reprocessing technique roadmap, the manufacture technology of MOX fuel, the modification of PWRs to accommodate the MOX fuel, and the recalculation of nuclear parameters by design procedure. The economic effect of applying MOX fuel is also considered. At last, the prospect of MOX fuel application is predicted in this paper.