IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v13y2020i22p6073-d448090.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Fuel Cycle Implications of Nuclear Process Heat

Author

Listed:
  • Aiden Peakman

    (National Nuclear Laboratory, Chadwick House, Warrington WA3 6AE, UK
    School of Engineering, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3GH, UK)

  • Robert Gregg

    (National Nuclear Laboratory, Chadwick House, Warrington WA3 6AE, UK)

Abstract

International and UK fuel cycle scenario analyses performed to date have focused on nuclear plants producing electricity without considering in detail the other potential drivers for nuclear power, such as industrial process heat. Part of the reason behind the restricted applications of nuclear power is because the assumptions behind the future scenario are not fully captured, for example how big are demands from different sectors? Here we present a means to fully capture the potential opportunities for nuclear power using Sankey diagrams and then, using this information, consider for the first time in the UK the fuel cycle implications of decarbonising industrial heat demand in the year 2050 with nuclear power using the ORION fuel cycle code to study attributes related to spent fuel, uranium demand and decay heat from the spent fuel. We show that even in high industrial energy demand scenarios, the sensitivity of spent fuel masses and decay heat to the types of reactor deployed is relatively small compared to the greater fuel cycle demands from large-scale deployment of nuclear plants for electricity production. However, the sensitivity of spent fuel volumes depends heavily on the extent to which High Temperature Reactor and Light Water Reactor systems operating on a once-through cycle are deployed.

Suggested Citation

  • Aiden Peakman & Robert Gregg, 2020. "The Fuel Cycle Implications of Nuclear Process Heat," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-19, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:22:p:6073-:d:448090
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/22/6073/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/22/6073/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aiden Peakman & Bruno Merk, 2019. "The Role of Nuclear Power in Meeting Current and Future Industrial Process Heat Demands," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-16, September.
    2. Aiden Peakman & Bruno Merk & Kevin Hesketh, 2020. "The Potential of Pressurised Water Reactors to Provide Flexible Response in Future Electricity Grids," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-16, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bader Alshuraiaan & Sergey Pushkin & Anastasia Kurilova & Magdalena Mazur, 2021. "Management of the Energy and Economic Potential of Nuclear Waste Use," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-14, June.
    2. Mohamed Hadri & Vincenzo Trovato & Agnes Bialecki & Bruno Merk & Aiden Peakman, 2021. "Assessment of High-Electrification UK Scenarios with Varying Levels of Nuclear Power and Associated Post-Fault Behaviour," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-23, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David Gattie & Michael Hewitt, 2023. "National Security as a Value-Added Proposition for Advanced Nuclear Reactors: A U.S. Focus," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-26, August.
    2. Umberto Lucia & Giulia Grisolia, 2024. "Energy Amplifier Systems as Sustainable Nuclear Reactors: An Overview," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-13, March.
    3. Choong-koo Chang & Harold Chisano Oyando, 2022. "Review of the Requirements for Load Following of Small Modular Reactors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-12, August.
    4. Paweł Sokólski & Tomasz A. Rutkowski & Bartosz Ceran & Dariusz Horla & Daria Złotecka, 2021. "Power System Stabilizer as a Part of a Generator MPC Adaptive Predictive Control System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-25, October.
    5. Pablo Fernández-Arias & Diego Vergara & Álvaro Antón-Sancho, 2023. "Bibliometric Review and Technical Summary of PWR Small Modular Reactors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-15, July.
    6. Mohamed Hadri & Vincenzo Trovato & Agnes Bialecki & Bruno Merk & Aiden Peakman, 2021. "Assessment of High-Electrification UK Scenarios with Varying Levels of Nuclear Power and Associated Post-Fault Behaviour," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-23, March.
    7. Haneklaus, Nils & Qvist, Staffan & Gładysz, Paweł & Bartela, Łukasz, 2023. "Why coal-fired power plants should get nuclear-ready," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:22:p:6073-:d:448090. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.