By extending the current fuel cycle based on the once-through recycling of plutonium in MOX fuel, the French national energy & climate plan (PPE) plans to study the multiple recycling of plutonium in line with the management strategy for pressurised water reactors, before deploying the fourth generation of reactors.
The CEA and its industry partners
EDF,
FRAMATOME and
ORANO study predictive scenarios supported by industrial and technological assumptions, which allow them to analyse the predictive impact of the fleet of reactors and fuel cycle plants over a period of 100 years.
These studies were carried out at the Reactor Physics & Fuel Cycle Section (SPRC) using the COSI simulation tool, which dynamically models the flows and inventories of material and waste in the different facilities.
Several evolution trajectories have already been modelled with respect to the current situation. The option to continue the current once-through recycling of fuel with a hypothetical return to an open cycle has been compared with the option to recycle plutonium multiple times based on different management strategies so as to reuse the entire stock of spent MOX fuel from the current PWR fleet before the end of the century.
These studies provide the technical data needed for the decision-makers who must choose the future strategy for the French nuclear reactor fleet.