Using life cycle assessment to quantify the environmental benefits of circular economy strategies in the nuclear industry

Abstract

In the United Kingdom nuclear energy is expected to play a key role in decarbonising the power generation sector. The implementation of circular economy approaches in the nuclear industry can minimize the amount and the associated environmental impacts of nuclear wastes. In this article, we demonstrate how Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can be used to investigate the environmental benefits of two circular economy strategies that aim at reducing the amount of intermediate level waste (ILW) destined for disposal in a geological disposal facility. The first case study focuses on a novel technology for recycling zirconium alloy cladding waste, whilst the second case study investigates the environmental benefits of using depleted (instead of natural) uranium to produce uranyl nitrate, a chemical used in the PUREX process. Our results show that both circular approaches outperform conventional ones across all environmental categories and particularly in terms of resources depletion, with reductions up to 25% and 94% for respectively zirconium alloy recycling and depleted uranium reuse. The environmental benefits of both approaches are due not only to a reduction in the amount of ILW to be disposed of, but also because they are assumed to induce a reduction in the demand for mining of primary zirconium or uranium respectively. When both approaches are combined, the environmental benefits range from 4% in the category freshwater and up to 94% in the category resource use, energy carriers.