Challenge to the Nuclear Fuel Cycle II

Key-note speaker: Dong-Seong Sohn (Director of Advanced Nuclear Fuel Development Division KAERI, Korea)
Chair and co-chair: Hans Wilhelm Bolloni, Framatome ANP, Germany
Speakers: Elena A. Repnikova, Martin Rivarola and JM Kang.

Even when there are lots of critical issues related with the Nuclear Fuel Cycle, the medium and long term storage of spent nuclear fuels seems to be a generalized concern all over the world.

As the decision on the final disposition of spent fuel is being delayed and the short term storage pools are being filled, the necessity of an interim dry storage arises. 

Using dry off-site storage in combination with wet on-site storage of the spent fuels will allow the countries to delay safely the final disposition of spent fuels for decades, in order to wait for better economical, political and technical situation, before taking the final decision.

In the other side of the fuel cycle, the enrichment market is passing trough a crisis, product of the finalization of the useful life of the bigger plants, and a general confusion about which will be the next dominant technology. The ultracentrifuge technology seems to be the less bad technology, but it has several shortcomings related with its very high investment cost and its huge proliferation potential.

The structure of the cost of the ultracentrifugues machines does not allow to expand the market using private funding, but always require government support.

It is important to separate politic from the technical aspects when decisions are took, if we want a healthy nuclear industry. And if the decisions are took based more in politics rather than technical and economical considerations, we are jeopardizing its future.