抄録
In the development of the above 5% enrichment fuel, which is one of the targeted concepts of the next-generation LWR, a reduction in power generation cost is expected. However, the introduction of the above 5% enrichment fuel has several adverse effects on the cost, such as SWU increase, newly required measures for criticality prevention, and increases in gamma, neutron and heat production levels. In addition, the power generation cost is greatly influenced by the uncertainty of uranium price; thus, the sensitivities of those parameters were analyzed. By sensitivity analysis, the range of parameters required to improve the generation cost was clarified. We assumed that the throughput of fuel fabrication is reduced by one third by employing the above 5% enrichment fuel and the spent fuel is reprocessed in the FBR reprocessing plant. In conclusion, it is demonstrated that the power generation cost can be reasonably reduced by increasing enrichment up to 7% or more in the case that the uranium price is less than ten times as much as the reference price and also the increase in fabrication cost is prevented by introducing Erbia credit.
