Recycling Benefits
Rémi Coulon
Executive Vice-President, Strategy & International Projects
Back-End Division, AREVA
AIEA, June 3, 2010
The Case for Recycling
Front-End benefits
Uranium savings
Competitive
and predictable
economics
Energy security
Back-End benefits
Optimizes final repository
 Volume
 Decay heat
 Radiotoxicity
 Standardized waste forms
Introduces long-term storage
as a viable complement:
flexibility in repository timing
Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.2
Nuclear
acceptance
Recycling Strengthens
Non-proliferation
Recycling restricted to a few regional centers under international
safeguards
 Offering recycling services to a wide range of customers
 Avoiding the accumulation of used fuel in multiple storage sites worldwide
 Returning to customers final waste not subject to AIEA safeguards
Plutonium recycled in MOX fuel
 Consumes roughly one third of the plutonium and controls overall Pu inventory
 Significantly degrades the isotopic composition of the remaining plutonium and thus the
potential attractiveness for non-peaceful usage
Commercial recycling facilities such as La Hague and Melox have a
perfect track record with respect to fissile materials safeguards
Recycling contributes to international non-proliferation initiatives
 Weapon-grade plutonium disposition (MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility in the US)
 Securing « gap material »
Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.3
Which Recycling?
UOX
Direct
Disposal
Fuel
Used
Used Fuel
Uranium
Front-End
Fuel
Disposal
Used Fuel
UOX
Gen III
Recycling
Final Waste
Fuel
Uranium
Front-End
Recycling
Light Water
Reactors
Final
waste
Disposal
Recycled Fuel
(U, Pu)
Used Fuel
Gen IV
Recycling
Recycling
Fast Neutron
Reactors
Recycled Fuel
(U, Pu and possibly
minor actinides)
Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.4
Final
Waste
Final waste
Disposal
Compared Benefits of Recycling Options
Gen IV recycling through fast neutron reactors holds great
promises
 Significant extension of the uranium resource
 From several hundred to several thousands of years of availability of the total
Uranium resource
 Benefiting from directly available resources such as depleted Uranium
 Much reduced radiotoxicity of the final waste
But today’s Gen III LWR recycling already starts to address
those issues
 25% uranium savings through LWR MOX and Enriched Reprocessed
uranium fuel
 Radiotoxicity reduction by 10 compared to direct disposal
 … using proven technologies and commercial models
Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.5
Repository Potential Radiotoxicity
Minor Actinides +
Fission Products
U-Pu LWR
Gen III
Recycling
Pu +
MA +
FP
Used fuel
Direct disposal
Uranium Ore (mine)
Fission
Products
U-Pu recycling +
MA transmutation
Gen IV Recycling
Time (years)
Assuming an optimistic 100% efficiency in the partitioning and
transmutation of all Minor Actinides with Gen IV recycling
Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.6
Mass Balances…
Fast neutron reactors need significant quantities of starting
material (HEU or Pu)
Pu likely preferred in a uranium-constrained world
 Need for ~ 10 Tons of Plutonium to start a 1 GWe FNR, irrespective of
final configuration (breeder, iso, burner)
 Corresponding to the processing of 1000 Tons of used UOX fuel
FNR can only start by using used LWR fuel and will therefore
need a significant (Gen III) recycling infrastructure in place
Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.7
Advanced Processes Development
New processes such as advanced separations and complex
fuel manufacturing with minor actinides take time to develop
 Gen-IV recycling characteristics are still unclear and strongly influenced
by various views on the need/scale of Minor Actinides management
 Lengthy qualification: bench-scale R&D, small-scale pilot, industrial
demonstrator
 Measured in decades
A significant part of any future Gen IV recycling plant will
draw from and rely on today’s industrial experience
 Facility head-end (e.g., used fuel shearing)
 HLW vitrification
 Metallic waste (cladding) management
 Liquid waste and air emissions management
 Maintenance in high activity environment
 Nuclear measurement and safeguardability of large-scale commercial facilities
Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.8
Today’s Commercial Recycling Platforms are a
Powerful Basis for Implementing Evolution
Example of La Hague plant evolutions over the past 20 years
 While designed for 33000 MWd/T UOX fuel, has been able to recycle a
wide variety of fuels
 Burn-up increase up to 55 000 MWd/T
 Used MOX
 Implementation of an on-line conditioning of waste
 Simplification of the number of cycles used in the purification process
 Radioactivity released divided by 20 (systematic in-plant recycling of
process flows)
 Total dose to exposed workers divided by 30
La Hague continues to progress
 Further adaptation to fuel evolution such as new cladding materials
 Systematic implementation of State-of-the-art manufacturing optimization
techniques (TPM, six-sigma)
 Increased capacity and efficiency through the introduction of new
technologies such as the Cold Crucible Melter for vitrification (after a 15year qualification process)
Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.9
Recycling Infrastructure Development
Recycling requires a significant and qualified infrastructure
in place
 R&D
 Engineering
 Operators
 Safety Authorities
 Supply Chain
Today’s Gen III large-scale, commercial recycling provides
the key platform from which to build the future recycling
Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.10
Conclusion
Recycling provides key benefits that will reinforce and
sustain the nuclear renaissance
Both LWR and Fast Neutron Reactor recycling approaches
should not be opposed but are fully complementary and
should be actively pushed in parallel
 Transition time: LWR and fast neutron reactors will co-exist for multiple
decades
 Risk management: controlled, gradual introduction of new technologies
as they mature
Today’s state-of-the-art commercial recycling platforms are in
fact a key enabler of the long-term Gen IV vision
Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.11