Global outlook on large-scale nuclear power development strategies

As of today, nuclear power together with hydropower provides three-quarters of global low-carbon electricity generation. Over the past 60 years since the time of its inception, the use of nuclear power has reduced CO2 emissions by over 60 gigatonnes. There is no doubt that nuclear power can play a major, and maybe even a decisive role in decarbonizing the electricity sector, as it is evident from the current energy mix of some European countries, especially France, and major economic powers like the Unites States, Russia and South Korea. It is also evident that in most advanced economies nuclear power has entered a phase of gradual decline with little new investment coming into new projects, regardless of the world’s desperate need for more low-carbon electricity. Although existing reactor and their corresponding fuel cycle technologies have enabled the global nuclear power fleet to reach ~ 400 GWe of net installed capacity, there is growing concern that the scale of NPP shutdowns expected in Europe and North America could offset new capacity additions in Asian markets. Theoretically, renewable energy could fill the void left by reactors taken offline but there is strong evidence that the potential of wind and solar for global decarbonization is limited by material, land and economic constraints. Large-scale renewable systems would also require massive energy storage capacity that would hamper economic sustainability of the energy supply for developing countries. Taking into account the potential benefits of developing nuclear power, some countries are determined to expand its share in their energy mix through technological innovation and application of new strategies, directed at improving or completely resolving current issues related to economics, environmental concerns or non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. There are many states in the world today pursuing some sort of nuclear power development. A limited number of countries envision expanding or transforming their nuclear energy system using truly game-changing strategies based on innovative reactor, fuel cycle and waste management technologies. The focus of this paper is to give an overview of the approaches to large-scale nuclear power development being applied today in Russia, China, USA and India.

Achievability of radiological equivalence associated with closed nuclear fuel cycle with fast reactors: impact of uncertainty factors in scenarios of Russian nuclear power development through to 2100. Part 1. Fast and thermal reactors

The Russian Government approved the Energy Strategy of the Russian Federation (Government Decree No.1523-r of June 9, 2020). The Strategy envisages the use of both thermal (TR) and fast (FR) reactors. The Strategy points out that the problems of nuclear power are associated with po-tential high expenses for irradiated fuel and radioactive wastes management. The previously de-signed model of the Russian nuclear energy development suggested that fast reactors only would operate at NPPs after 2010. Radiological equivalence, expressed as the equivalence of lifetime radiation risks to the public from radioactive wastes and from primary uranium ore, was shown to be achieved after 100-year storage. The burnup of 241Am, 237Np и 242Сm in closed nu-clear fuel cycle with fast reactors is a key part in the achievability of radiation risks equivalence. Scenarios of the Russian nuclear energy development through to 2100 with account of uncertain-ty factors in the measurement of contribution of fast and thermal reactors to the electric energy production are considered in the paper. The following three scenarios were developed: uncer-tainty is replaced by FRs; uncertainty is replaced by TRs; 50 per cent of FRs and 50 per cent of TRs replace uncertainty. If the energy is produced by fast reactors only (scenario 1) radiological equivalence was found to be achieved in 412 years. In two other scenarios radiological equiva-lence will be achieved after more than 1000 years. Contribution of main dose-forming radionu-clides and relevant ratios of potential biological hazards is included in models regardless of whether uncertainty in nuclear energy development is taking or not taking into account. Results of the study of conditions for radiological equivalence achievement should be used for amending Strategic plan of Russian nuclear power development through to 2100 that meets requirements of radiation ecology and radiation protection of the public.

Subcritical nuclear power and economic development, proposals

This paper presents different concepts of interest for nuclear power development, in a balanced way, aimed at communities, industrial development, yachting and military purposes. Nuclear power can serve anywhere in the globe. This paper is intended at contributing to making it happen, in the “atoms for peace” spirit.

The Status quo, challenges and countermeasures of nuclear power development in China

In China, the proportion of coal in the energy structure is high, and the utilization of coal will cause carbon emission and environmental pollution. Therefore, the adjustment of energy structure and the utilization of new energy has become the focus of China's efforts to comprehensively promote the green development of energy. At present, developing nuclear power has become a key way to break through the bottleneck of new energy power supply and realize economic and ecological benefits. Based on the current situation and existing problems of China's nuclear power industry, this paper puts forward the challenges and measures for the future development of nuclear power.

Research and application of nuclear power plant in-service inspection information management platform

In-service inspection is one of the important means to ensure nuclear safety, and the current manual management model has been difficult to adapt to the high requirements of nuclear power development. For example, there have been problems such as inconsistency of key data information, difficulty in statistical analysis of inspection results, lack of or untimely experience feedback. Through the research and application of the in-service inspection technology management platform, it focuses on the platform design, business architecture, and key technologies in the actual development process. The application of the platform is a further upgrade of the in-service inspection management model. It can further enhance the advantages of information management, improve the management efficiency and level of in-service inspection of nuclear power plants, and escort the safe operation of nuclear power plants.

Achievability of radiological equivalence associated with closed nuclear fuel cycle with fast reactors: impact of uncertainty factors in scenarios of Russian nuclear power development through to 2100. Part 2. Migration of radionuclides

The potential health risk of future generations of people from radioactive waste (RW) disposed in deep repository is estimated for three scenarios for the development of nuclear power in Russia. There is currently a zone of uncertainty when making decisions about future power generation technologies. For this zone of uncertainty, the following three scenarios are considered: 1) appli-cation of fast neutron reactors, FR, only; 2) application of thermal neutron reactors, TR; and 3) ap-plication of FR and TR in combination. Long-lived RW from FR is assessed to be ten times less toxic than RW from TR. After reprocessing of the wastes to extract 90% of uranium and plutonium for incineration and americium for transmutation in FR, the toxicity of RW is again reduced by 10 times. Committed effective doses and lifetime attributable risk (LAR) to the public are estimated with account of radionuclides migration from the deep storage to the surface. Due to the RW re-processing the time to the achievement of radiation equivalence of RW stored in the repository and natural uranium ore is reduced to an acceptable time, at which the integrity of RW packages is guaranteed. From the standpoint of modern standards of radiological protection and minimiza-tion the potential carcinogenic effects of radiation exposure on the population, priority in the de-velopment of nuclear energy in Russia should be given to the first scenario of the development of nuclear power, in which FR are used as much as possible to generate electricity. This conclusion should be taken into consideration in adjusting the Strategic plan for the development of nuclear power in Russia.

Nuclear Power

This chapter provides an overview of nuclear power around the world, the fundamentals of nuclear technology, and nuclear energy’s costs and benefits. Nuclear energy accounts for 10.6 percent of energy produced for electricity globally. Although a relatively small percentage of production, it has often been in the spotlight for its great potential, both good and bad. As of 2018, there were 451 operational commercial nuclear reactors globally and many more under construction. This chapter explores some of the key arguments made for and against nuclear energy and examines future areas of nuclear power development, including small modular reactors, advanced Generation IV reactor designs, and the expansion of non-electric applications, in light of the current state of nuclear power.

Justification of VVER-1000 safety when using fuel compositions doped by protactinium and neptunium

Increasing fuel burnup is one of the important areas of nuclear power development. Currently, the most common type of light-water reactors is characterized by burnup ratios of about 5%, i.e., only a small fraction of fuel is used to generate electricity. The paper considers the possibility of a significant increase in fuel burnup due by introducing protactinium and neptunium into the fuel composition. The chains of nuclide transformations starting with protactinium and neptunium are characterized by a gradual improvement in the multiplying properties, which ensures increased fuel burnup. At the same time, a situation may be observed when the multiplying properties of a fuel composition are improved during the campaign, which indicates that at a certain point in time the accumulation rate of fissile nuclides from protactinium and neptunium exceeds the accumulation rate of fission products. While protactinium is hardly accessible in sufficient quantities, neptunium is contained in spent nuclear fuel, a significant amount of which is stored in on-site facilities. Therefore, from a practical perspective, the introduction of neptunium into fuel compositions seems to be more preferable. The novelty of the work is the analysis of the effects of protactinium and neptunium on the reactivity coefficients during fuel campaigns. The calculations were carried out for a VVER-1000 type reactor using the SCALE-6.2 software package.