ORNL-5388 - the Molten Salt Energy Technologies Web Site

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Option 4: In this option, LEU (235U/238U) converters and denatured 235U and
converters are operated outside the energy centers and no reactors are operated ins
the centers. Spent fuel is returned to the secure energy centers for reprocessing.
fissile uranium is recycled into the converters, but the plutonium is stored inside
center either for ultimate disposal or for future use at an unspecified date.
Fig. 6.1-3. Options 4, 5U, and 5T: Denatured Uranium Options with Converters On
calculate the capital, fabrication, and reprocessing costs for the same unit. (Note: An
exception to this philosophy was contained in a set of cases described in Appendix Din
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which the U308 supply was assumed to be sufficiently large so as not to impose a practical
limit on the growth of the nuclear system over the planning horizon. In this case, the
decision to construct--or not to construct--a reactor concept was based on its total
power cost, which of course included the cost of U308 as an increasing function of the
total amount consumed. Thus, while the ability to conserve U308 did enter into the decision,
it was not the single dominating factor.)
An example of the uncertainty involved in calculating the total power cost of a
nuclear unit in the future is illustrated in Fig. 6.1-7. This figure was developed by
assigning a reasonable set of uncertainties to the capital, fabrication, and reprocessing
costs for a set of five reactor concepts with four fuel options for each concept. The
actual costs and their uncertainty are discussed in detail in Appendix 6. In all cases,
the costs were assumed to be mature industry costs during the period 2010 to 2040 with
the price of U308 increasing from $140/lb to $180/lb during this period. The reactor
concepts shown in the figure are the LWR, SSCR, HWR, and HTGR converters and the FBR.
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