The FuTure oF nuclear Fuel cycle - MIT Energy Initiative

(7A.3)
and,
(7A.4)
There is a unique p * such that these two LCOEs equal one another, and are equal to the
LCOE for the cycle as a whole:
This condition is what we use to determine the price of plutonium for the cycle. 4
(7A.5)
The Fast Reactor Recycle
In recycling of spent fuel through fast reactors, the process of passing along a portion of the
original fuel to the next reactor is repeated ad infinitum. A truly complete LCOE calculation
requires a full accounting of the infinite chain of costs incurred as the packet of fuel
moves from one reactor to the next. So the numerator of our formula will now show an infinite
chain of profiles of costs, and the denominator will show an infinite chain of profiles of
electricity production. Let subscript j index the passes through a reactor, with j=1 referring
to the initial pass through the light water reactor with fresh UOX fuel, and j=2,3,4… referring
to the subsequent passes through fast reactors using fast reactor fuel fabricated using
recycled transuranics. The window of time [A j ,B j ] encompasses the electricity produced in
the j th pass through a reactor, C jt denotes the full set of realized costs in pass j at date t, and
Q jt denotes the time profile of electricity produced in pass j at date t. Then the LCOE for the
Fast Reactor Recycle is given by:
(7A.6)
appendix to chapter 7: economics 171