Host: Japan Society of Material Cycles and Waste Management
Name : The 31st Annual Conference of Japan Society of Material Cycles and Waste Management
Number : 31
Location : [in Japanese]
Date : September 16, 2020 - September 18, 2020
The life cycle assessment of nuclear power generation has been widely conducted to evaluate its environmental impacts. Meanwhile, the assessment of life cycle resource use has yet to be fully executed. In most existing studies, the boundary of resource use has not included the waste generated during the resource mining. A comprehensive resource-use evaluation is required for well-understanding of nuclear power generation. Therefore, in this study, the resource efficiency of nuclear power generation is analyzed from viewpoint of mining activity based on the concept of the total material requirement (TMR). In particular, the effectiveness of the recycling system of spent fuel and radioactive waste, such as the Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel usage and thorium fuel cycles, is evaluated. It was found that the change of different mining methods and the usage of MOX fuel mitigates the TMR per kWh (specific TMR) of nuclear power generation approximately by 60 % and 40 %, respectively. From this result, considering the mining method and promoting the introduction of MOX fuel usage would contribute to a significant improvement of specific TMR, leading to mitigation of environmental impacts caused by land disturbances through mining activities.
