The decreasing use of fossil fuel power stations has a negative effect on the stability of the electricity systems in many countries. Nuclear power stations have traditionally provided minimal ancillary services to support the system but this must change in the future as they replace fossil fuel generators. This paper explains the development of the four most popular reactor types still in regu...

A study of the DUPIC (Direct Use of Spent PWR Fuel In CANDU) cycle was made to analyze cycle performance relative to that of PWR and CANDU fuel cycles in terms of uranium utilization and spent fuel production efficiency. The DUPIC cycle was found to be most efficient in terms of minimizing spent fuel production as well as most efficient (within limits) in terms of maximizing natural uranium uti...

Capital costs, fuel, operation and maintenance (O&M) costs, and electricity prices play a key role in the economics of nuclear power plants, where especially capital costs are known to be highly uncertain. Different nuclear reactor types compete economically by having either lower and less uncertain construction costs, increased efficiencies, lower and less uncertain fuel cycles and O&M costs e...

Electricity generated from nuclear power plants is generally associated with low emissions per kWh generated, an aspect that feeds into the wider debate surrounding nuclear power. This paper seeks to investigate how life-cycle emissions would be affected by including thorium in the nuclear fuel cycle, and in particular its inclusion in technologies that could prospectively operate open Th–U-bas...

This is a feasibility study of a new measurement technique for spent nuclear fuel. The technique combines gamma emission tomography with neutron activation analysis. The idea is to measure high-energy characteristic gamma from short-lived fission products and thereby verify the fissile material content in spent nuclear fuel assemblies. Simulations using MCNP were done to estimate the expected d...

The cover shows the sun over a nuclear power station. Tritium is generated by nuclear fusion reactions in the sun and would be generated in terrestrial nuclear fusion power production. It is also produced as part of the fuel cycle in current nuclear fi ssion power production and has several uses in industry.