Posted: March 3rd, 2014
natural uranium
- $135/kgSWU; price of natural uranium /lb; price conversion $11/kg; price of fabrication $290/kg
- ï‚· Â 4.95% reactor fuel; tails assay 0.25%; losses in fabrication 0.15%; losses in conversion 0.1%
-   Industrial pricing of electricity 6.9¢/kwh
- ï‚· Â Nuclear plant thermal efficiency 32%
- ï‚· Â Discharge burnup 55,000 MWD/MTU
- ï‚· Â Assume other factors only as appropriate making justification and reference as needed.
- Using the information given above, calculate the optimum tails assay. Plot the cost of fuel as a function of tails assay.
2.Consider reenrichment (via centrifuge) of high assay tails in the form of UF6 (assume 0.42%) to a natural uranium equivalent product (in the form of UF6). Assuming a fixed price for conversion of natural uranium, develop and equation and find the price of natural uranium above which this approach would be competitive given the cost of reenrichment. Assume the secondary tails assay of 0.15% and assume the high assay tails are free but a fixed handling cost of $5/kg and ignore losses. How much of this high assay depleted uranium would be needed to supply the natural uranium equivalent for the US for one year?
3.Approximately how much electricity is generated from nuclear power each year in the US? Given the average fuel burnup above, calculate a yearly average demand for reactor fuel and SWU for the US. What is the cost of this fuel? If the entire enrichment capacity were to be derived from centrifuge machines with a capacity of 45kgSWU/yr, how many machines would be required? What would be the energy requirement for this enrichment per kg of fuel (product) and yearly total required? What is the energy input for enrichment (via centrifuge method) as a fraction of the electricity generated by the fuel produced?
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