Assessment of a French scenario with the INPRO methodology

This paper presents the French contribution to the Joint Study of the IAEA’s International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles (INPRO). It concerns the application of the INPRO methodology to a French scenario, on the transition from present LWRs to EPRs in a first phase and to 4th generation fast reactors in a second phase during the 21st century. The scenario also considers the renewal of the present fuel cycle facilities by the third and the fourth generation ones. Present practice of plutonium recycling in PWR is replaced by the middle of the century by a global recycling of actinides, uranium, plutonium and minor actinides in fast reactors. The status and the evolution of the INPRO’s criteria and the corresponding indicators during the studied period are analyzed for each of the six considered areas: economics, safety, environment, waste management, proliferation resistance and infrastructure. Improvements on economic and safety are expected for both the EPR and the 4th generation systems having these improvements among their basic goals. The use of fast reactors and global recycling of actinides leads to a significant improvement on environment indicators and in particular on the natural resources utilization. The envisaged waste management policy results in significant reductions on mass, thermal loads and radiotoxicity of the final waste which only contains fission products. The use of fuels that do not relay on enriched uranium and separated plutonium increases the proliferation resistance characteristics of the future fuel cycle. The paper summarizes also some recommendations on the data, codes and methods used to support the continuous improvement of the INPRO methodology and help future assessors.