13 - Nuclear fuel fabrication

Abstract

Fabrication of nuclear fuel assemblies for nuclear power plants (NPPs) is the step in the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle when nuclear fuel is transformed from a fungible commodity (eg, natural or enriched uranium, or other fissile material) into a highly engineered product, with designs that are tailored to a specific NPP’s needs. That is, fuel assembly designs are specific to a given reactor type (generally based on the nuclear steam supply system) and a specific NPP’s fuel management strategy (which considers cycle length, capacity factor, existing fuel in the reactor core, etc.) The nuclear fuel fabrication market for light water reactor (LWR) fuel assemblies is the largest—approximately 82% of the operating NPPs in the world are LWRs. Among LWR designs, there are two general categories of plants: pressurized water reactors (PWR), including Russian VVER designs, and boiling water reactors, which make up 63.4% and 18.4% of operating units, respectively, as shown Fig. 13.1 at the end of 2014. Non-LWR NPP designs include gas-cooled reactors (GCR), pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWR), Russian graphite-moderated reactors (RBMK) and liquid-metal-cooled fast reactors (LMR). PHWRs are the second largest segment of operating NPPs after LWRs, with 11% of all operating reactors worldwide, as shown in Fig. 13.1 (ANS, 2015).