金属燃料高速炉サイクル導入の意義

(2) 金属燃料高速炉サイクル導入シナリオ

抄録

Using the dynamic nuclear fuel cycle simulator NMB4.0, we analyzed the mass balance of the nuclear fuel cycle in the case that metallic fuel is used as fast reactor (FR) fuel for the introduction of the FR cycle expected in the second half of this century. We evaluated the impact of the introduction of the FR cycle on the back-end system including final disposal. The scenario study is made clear that under the conditions that metal fuel is used in the FR cycle and spent MOX fuel from the light water reactor (LWR) cycle is metallized and transferred to the FR cycle, the final disposal site area is reduced to about 60% of that in the case that oxide fuel is used in both the LWR cycle and FR cycle. In addition, when the MA separation process is established to the reprocessing plant in the LWR cycle, and the MA separated from the high-level radioactive waste is mixed with MOX, then metal-reduced and transferred to the FR cycle, the disposal site area is further halved due to the efficient transmutation of MA in the FR.