Management of Commercially Generated Radioactive Waste - U.S. ...

4.11
corresponds to the annual electrical energy consumption of about one million people in the
U.S. (The total electric utility sales in 1978 amounted to about 230 GWe-yr.) For the
generic LWR fuel cycle upon which this Statement is based, 38 MT of U0 2 or mixed UO 2 -PuO 2
(MOX) fuel must pass through the cycle to generate 1 GWe-yr.
4.2.1 Once Through-Cycle Wastes
The only primary waste in the once-through fuel cycle within the scope of this State-
ment is the spent fuel itself. Two basic types of LWR fuel are in use today: pressurized
water reactor (PWR) fuel and boiling water reactor (BWR) fuel. The reference PWR and BWR
fuel assemblies defined for this generic Statement are described in Figure 4.2.1. Fuel for
specific plants may vary somewhat from these descriptions.
For the purpose of describing radioactivity content of the wastes here, an example fuel
composition based on a representative mixture of PWR and BWR fuel assemblies was developed.
However, the system simulation results presented in Chapter 7 are based on explicit PWR and
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2 lI IIIII.IIIII I I
l iill IIi I lllllII u I ill
PWR BWR
FUEL ELEMENT ARRAY
ASSEMBLY FUEL ELEMENT TOTAL ARRAY WEIGHT, kg
URANIUMIASSEMBLY. ASSEMBLY TOTAL WEIGHT, kg kg
17 x 17
658 17 x 17
461.4 558
8 x 8
283.9 8x8
283.9 188.7
URANIUMIASSEMBLY. kg 461.4 188.7
MO2/ASSEMBLY, kg 523.4 214.1
ZIRCALOY/ASSEMBLY. kg 108.4 59.6
HARDWAREIASSEMBLY, kg 26.2 10.2
TOTAL METALIASSEMBLY. kg 134.6 69.8
FIGURE 4.2.1. Unirradiated Reference Fuel Assemblies