use of nuclear energy: pro and contras. economic criteria ... · occurred on december 20, 1951 at...

Basics of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle.Use of nuclear energy: pro and contra.

Economic criteria.

Alexander PavlovNational Research Nuclear University

MEPhI

September 18, 2017Moscow

Consumption of energy and the history of technological revolutions and breakthroughs

Source: INEI RAS "Forecast of the development of the world's energy and Russia 2016"

2

109 toe

Компьютеризацияи интернет

Global annual energy consumptionin 109 tons of oil equivalent (toe)

2016 2050

Total primaryenergy consumedin 1 year

14 ~ 20

Including the energyspent on electricityproduction

6 ~ 10

Electric Power Consumption

2 ~ 5

3

Structure of Primary Energy Consumption

Industry

and

Household

Electricity

and HeatTransport

Coal Gas Oil NuclearRenewable

4

5

What will be the energy strategy in the second half of the XXI century?

A reasonable energy strategy for mankind in the XXI century is todevelop high-tech power systems based on a variety of primaryenergy resources while making the natural environmentpreservation a top priority. This strategy will inevitably causepeople to reduce the use of hydrocarbon primary sources forenergy production purposes. What options are available?

Source: INEI RAS "Forecast of the development of the world's energy and Russia 2016” assumptions in the period up to 2040:✓ There are no technological revolutions.✓ Implementation of only technologies that are already being

tested.✓ Growth of economic efficiency of already applied technologies.✓ Decrease in the energy intensity of the world's GDP.

Tidal Energy

6

Renewable energy potential

Hydropower

BiomassWind

Solar

Geothermal

Theoretical potential of all renewable energy sources:180 billion toe per year

7

Solution of the 21st century energy problems requires the widespread use of nuclear energy

In this century public concerns will be focused much more than before on the environment problems. They can not be solved

effectively without nuclear power.

Over the past 60 years

nuclear power has

become one of the

reliable energy

production

technologies with no

emission of

greenhouse gases into

the atmosphere.

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In 2016 there were 447 nuclear power units in theworld with installed capacity around 390 GW(e).

Nuclear power in the world

• Six countries (the United States, France, Japan, Russia, Germany, China) produce 75% of the world's nuclear power.

• Light water reactors of three types (PWR, BWR, VVER) constitute 80% of the world's nuclear power reactor park.

• Five countries have advanced developments in fast reactors (Russia, France, Japan, China, India).

• Five companies in 8 countries (TVEL, URENCO, AREVA, CNNC, JNFL) conduct commercial enrichment of uranium.

• Six countries (France, Great Britain, Russia, Japan, India, China) have nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities.

• 33 countries operate nuclear power plants.

• 10 other countries are building or plan to build NPPs on their territory.

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Nuclear power in the world

1938 – Nuclear fission of heavy elements was discoveredby Otto Hahn and his assistant Fritz Strassmann, andexplained theoretically in 1939 by Lisa Meitner and OttoRobert Frish. They bombarded the nucleus of a uraniumatom with neutrons, causing it to split and release energy.

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This phenomena is called a stimulated nuclear fission and is in the basis of all contemporary nuclear power

Emergence of Nuclear Power

1939 – Leo Szilárd and Enrico Fermi searched for, anddiscovered, neutron multiplication in uranium, proving thata nuclear chain reaction by this mechanism was indeedpossible. In this reaction, a neutron plus a fissionableatom causes a fission resulting in a number of newneutrons.

Energy released by 1 gram

of carbon through burning

equals 8,9*10-3 KWh.

Energy released by 1 gram

of uranium-235 through

fission equals 2.2*104 KWh

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For the first time ever electricity was generated by a

nuclear reactor on September 3, 1948 at the X-10

Graphite Reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee in the United

States, and was the first nuclear power reactor to power

a light bulb.

The second, larger experiment

occurred on December 20, 1951

at the EBR-1 (Experimental Breeder

Reactor) at Reactor Testing Station

near Arco, Idaho in the United States.

On June 27, 1954, the world's first nuclear power plant

to generate electricity for a power grid started operations

at Obninsk, the USSR.


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First NPP in

the world -

1954, USSR,

Obninsk,

5MWe.

First commercial NPP - 1956,

Calder Hall, Cumbria,

England, 60MWe.

The Shippingport reactor was the

first full-scale PWR nuclear power

plant in the United States,1958,

60MWe.13


“What was so incredible about this plant was that Obninsk was the world's first nuclear power plant feed into an existing commercial grid. Astonishingly, during the heat of the cold war this plant was not built with a military goal in mind, but rather the purpose of this plant was the generation of electricity and the facilitation of research”John Morrissey, Stanford University, March 15, 2015.http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2015/ph241/morrissey2/

Obninsk NPP

“A 5 MWe experimental reactor at Obninsk in the Soviet Union had been connected to the public supply in 1954, and was the world's first nuclear power plant.”Wired. “June 27, 1954: World's First Nuclear Power Plant Opens”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellafieldhttps://www.wired.com/2012/06/june-27-1954-worlds-first-nuclear-power-plant-opens/

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http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2015/ph241/morrissey2/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellafield

Operation of nuclear power plants in XX century has

demonstrated:

▪ their high potential in meeting the energy needs of

mankind;

▪ their advantages, particularly the absence of CO2

emissions and other environmentally harmful

effects, the stable and reliable operation;

▪ in the same time – growing level of public concern

in regard to nuclear power due to combination of

factors: educational, psychological and economic,

amplified by greatly distorted information about

nuclear accidents.

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The nuclear fuel cycle is the series of all industrial processes that involve the nuclear fuel manufacturing and production of electricity from nuclear fuel in nuclear power reactors. NFC conventionally described as consisting of the following two parts: “front end” including mining, ore processing, conversion, enrichment, fabrication; “back end” – post reactor spent fuel and radwaste management.

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What is nuclear fuel cycle?

Uranium Mine - Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground.

Open pit In citu leaching mine

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Before

Nowadays

Underground mining


Milling is a process of uranium recovery used to extract uranium from the ore.A conventional uranium mill is a chemical plant that extracts uranium usingcertain processes. When the uranium leaves a uranium mill, it is in the formof uranium compounds mixture, or what is commonly called yellowcake oruranium concentrate containing mostly oxide U3O8 .After the U3O8 is produced, the next step is conversion into pure uraniumhexafluoride (UF6). Uranium enrichment requires natural uranium in form ofUF6. That transformation is achieved at conversion plants.

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Enriched uranium is a kind of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 has been increased from natural 0.7% through the process of isotope separation. According to internationally accepted convention it is determined that enriched uranium with a lower than 20% concentration of U-235 is a low-enriched uranium (LEU). For use in commercial light water reactors (LWR), the most prevalent power reactors in the world, uranium is enriched to 3 to 5 % U-235.

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Highly enriched uranium (HEU) has a greater than 20% concentration of U-235 or U-233. The fissile uranium containing 85% or more of U-235 is known as weapons-grade uranium, although for a crude, inefficient weapon 20% is sufficient. The critical mass for 85% of highly enriched uranium is about 50 kilograms, which at normal density would be a sphere less than 20 cm in diameter. HEU is also used in fast neutron reactors, research reactors as well as in naval reactors, where it contains at least 50% U-235, but typically does not exceed 90%.

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Nuclear Fuel fabrication is the final stage in nuclear fuel preparation prior to use in a reactor. Fabrication involves chemical transformation of UF6 into oxide UO2 (the powder), manufacturing from it the pellets, fabrication of the fuel rods. The finished fuel rods are grouped into fuel assemblies that are used to build up the core of a power reactor.

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Pellets Fuel Rods Assemblies


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VVER Reactor

The VVER is the Russian version of the Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR). There are 3 standard designs - two 6 loop- 440Megawatt [440-230 (older) and 440-213 (newer)] and 4 loop-1000 Megawatt output designs. As with PWRs, refuelings areconducted with the plant shutdown.

Graphic courtesy Argonne National Lab and Nuclear Energy Institute

As in the western European and U.S. versions of the pressurized water reactor, each Reactor Coolant Loop includes a SteamGenerator and a Reactor Coolant Pump. The water passes through the inside of the tubes in the steam generator. TheReactor Coolant Pump circulates the water for cooling the Reactor Core. The system is pressurized to 2200+ pounds persquare inch by a Pressurizer (not shown), which is connected to one of the reactor coolant loops. Spray valves and heaters areused to control pressure within the allowed band. A major difference between western designed PWRs and the VVERs is thatthe latter have horizontal steam generators. The older VVERs have isolation valves in the reactor coolant loops and accidentlocalization compartments. Please click for an illustration of a VVER plant layout with a containment. Example diagrams courtesy

IVO Group - Finland

Water passing on the outside of the steam generator tubes is heated and converted to steam. The steam passes to the Turbine asin the Pressurized Water Reactor case discussed elsewhere at this site. The Turbine drives the Generator as in all casesdiscussed. Steam in the VVER design is not expected to be radioactive.

Sources of information on the VVER design include:

Nuclear Energy Institute's Sourcebook on Russian Design ReactorsArgonne National LaboratoryCEZ Dukovany and Temelin plant descriptionBohunice plant information on this site

The Nuclear Energy Institute's Sourcebook on Russian Design Reactors provides extensive information on the reactor designand particulars on each VVER station in Russia and the former Soviet countries.

Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) presents a good graphic of each style of VVER plant with a numbered legend indicatingeach of the major components; however, there is currently a limited description.

VVER 440-230VVER 440-213VVER 1000

The VVER 440 design includes accident localization zones and a confinement rather than a true containment. Loviisa 1 and 2are the exceptions which do have the western-style containment. The VVER 1000 has a traditional containment.

Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor.

Nuclear reprocessing technology was developed to chemically separate and recover fissionable plutonium and uranium from irradiated nuclear fuel.

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Spent nuclear fuel “dry” storage


Radioactive waste is the waste that contains radioactive material.

Radwaste is usually a by-product of nuclear power generation and other applications of nuclear technology, such as research and medicine. Radioactive waste because of ionizing radiation it produces is hazardous to most forms of life and the environment, and is regulated by government agencies in order to protect human health and the environment.

The radwaste could be Low-level and High-level.

Low-level waste includes items that have become contaminated with radioactive material or have become radioactive through exposure to neutron radiation. High-level radioactive wastes are the highly radioactive materials produced as a byproduct of the reactions that occur inside nuclear reactors.

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The radioactive waste disposal is especially important for high active waste. The time frame in question when dealing with radioactive waste ranges from 10,000 to 1,000,000 years. One of disposal methods currently used is a geologic disposal. The problem on waste disposal is one of the most troubling for the people and the one where new technologies are being developed.

25Yucca Mountain, USA: nuclear waste repository never finished


Market for these products and services has an over 40-year long history:

➢ 1950-60s – establishing the industry, no market yet, the USA dominates➢ 1970s – new players come, market arises➢ 1980s – market rules and regulations emerge➢ 1990-2000s – market matures➢ 2010s – new challenges: expectations and disappointments (“nuclear

renaissance”, Fukushima)

Front-end products and services traded on the international market:

➢ natural uranium – U3O8

➢ conversion to UF6

➢ isotopic enrichment - SWU ➢ Low enriched uranium➢ fabrication services➢ complete fuel assembly

Nuclear Fuel Cycle Front-End Market

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NFC Market Regulation System

✓ Legal framework

✓ WTO (general rules for power resources trade)

✓ Non-Proliferation Treaty and regional agreements

✓ Nuclear Suppliers Group and Zangger Committee

✓ Bilateral “123” Agreements

✓ National regulations and legislation

✓ Regulation bodies

✓ International (IAEA, Euratom)

✓ National authorities (export control, customs regulation, etc.)

✓ Russia: Federal Service under Technical & Export Control (nuclear trade

licensing); Federal Customs Service; Federal Service for Ecological,

Technological and Nuclear Supervision; law enforcement bodies

Proliferation risks are associated mostly with enrichment and LEU

However all circulations of nuclear front-end products and services are subject

to international and national safeguards systems.

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Challenges for nuclear power development:

➢ Economics.

➢ Used fuel and high level waste management.

➢ Nuclear fuel resources.

➢ Nuclear safety and nuclear security.

➢ Nuclear non-proliferation.

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Current reactor development by major vendors:

Advanced PWR and BWR

AES - 2006 (VVER-1200 TOI standard), VBER, VVER-600 (Russia),

AP-1000 (USA, Japan, China), EPR-1600 (France), ABWR (Japan,

USA)

Advanced CANDU type reactors

ACR-1000 (Canada), AHWR (India)

NPP and nuclear reactors market

The project NPP AES-2006 is a third plus generation evolutionarypressurized water reactor based on Russian VVER-1000 plants. Electricpower – 1200 MW.

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Nuclear power plant with advanced reactor VVER-1200

The first of two units of VVER-1200 was commissioned in 2016 and started industrial operation at Novovoronezh-2 site in February 2017. Work is underway on construction of two VVER-1200 units at the Leningrad-2 site.

Hurricanes,

tornadoesmax.design wind velocity :

56 m/s.

Shock wavewith the front

pressure of 30

kPa

Seismic impacts

Basic option:

SSE– intensity 7 on the MSK-64 scale

DBE – intensity 6

Floods, stormsaccording to site-specific

conditions

Aicraft fallBasic option: 20 tons.

Option: 400 tons.

Safety features of AES 2006 – VVER-1200

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www.rosatom.ru 54

NPP construction program in Russia

Rosatom NPPs in operation and under construction

The content of this presentation is for discussion purposes only, shall not be considered as an offer and doesn’t lead to any obligations to Rosatom and its affiliated

companies. Rosatom disclaims all responsibility for any and all mistakes, quality and completeness of the information.

Rostov 3,4 (2)

Balakovo (4)

Beloyarsk (1) Beloyarsk 4(1)

Kola (4)

Baltic (2)

Novovoronesh №1 (3)

Bilibino (4)

Kursk(4)

Leningrad №2 (2)

Kalinin (4)

Smolensk (3)

Leningrad №1 (4)

Novovoronesh №2 (2)

NPP Unit Type

Baltic №1 VVER-1200

№2 VVER-1200

Beloyarsk №4 BN-800

Leningrad №2 №1 VVER-1200

№2 VVER-1200

Novovoronesh №2 №1 VVER-1200

№2 VVER-1200

Rostov №3 VVER-1000

№4 VVER-1000

Under construction

Rostov 1,2 (2)

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www.rosatom.ru 55

Rosatom’s new VVER projects outside Russia

9 11

Tendering or

negotiations

52

Potential

China

India

Turkey Armenia Czech Republic

Jordan

Kazakhstan

Ukraine

Slovakia

Hungary

Finland

Malaysia

Brazil

Bangladesh

Vietnam

Argentina

Indonesia

4

2

1

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2 5

1 4

21

2

Belarus 2

South Africa

8

Saudi Arabia 2

12

Construction or site

preparation

Bulgaria

10

2

UK

4

Nigeria

2

Prepared under

govern-

mental contract

4

2

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Dependence of cost on time in two cases: plant construction and operation cost (1) or buying SWU on the market (2): a) for 1 nuclear reactor; b) for 6 reactors, and c) for 11 reactors.

Economic estimates show that to own enrichment plant compared to purchasing the separation work in the world market becomes profitable if the enrichment service is in demand by nuclear power plants with a total capacity of about 10-12 GW, that is by 10 to 12 typical nuclear power units. Then the annual production of the enrichment plant intended for local consumption must be 1.5 - 2 million SWU. This evaluation is qualitatively shown in the diagram below.

Ref: 1. A.Pavlov. On the choice of technology for a new uranium enrichment plant. Nuclear Engineering and Design, 320 (2017) 9–16 2. A.V.Pavlov, M.A.Platov. Centrifuge technology proliferation and nuclear weapon proliferation risk. Proceedings of the 11-th International Workshop on Separation Phenomena in Liquids and Gases, June 13-18, 2010, Saint-Petersburg, Russia

Annex: On the relation between proliferation risk, needs in nuclear power and ownership of uranium enrichment capacity.

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use of nuclear energy: pro and contras. economic criteria ... · occurred on december 20, 1951 at...

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