Equilibrium characteristics of typical fuel cycles of PWR

We have performed equilibrium analyses of light water reactor (LWR) with enriched uranium supply. In this study, five kinds of fuel cycles of 3000 MWt pressurized water reactor (PWR) were investigated, and a method to determine the uranium enrichment in order to achieve their criticality was presented. The results indicated that the enrichment decreases significantly with increasing number of confined heavy nuclides when U is discharged from the reactor. The required natural uranium was also evaluated for two different enrichment processes. The amount of required natural uranium also decreases as well, which may agree with the systematic comparison of typical fuel cycles of PWR on the same condition for resource requirements and discharged radioactive wastes. On the other hand, when U is totally confined, the enrichment becomes unacceptably high. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.