NUCLEAR CRITICALITY SAFETY CHALLENGES AND FINANCIAL ADVANTAGES OF A NOVEL FUEL DISSOLUTION ROUTE PROPOSED FOR THE REPROCESSING OF HIGH ENRICHED URANIUM OXIDE AND MIXED OXIDE FUELS

摘要

It is universally accepted that demonstrating the safety of any aspect of the nuclear fuel cycle, including reprocessing operations, requires close collaboration between many disciplines not least Design Engineers and Criticality Safety Specialists. A major challenge is to develop a design that offers operational flexibility without compromising nuclear safety, taking into account plant lifetime running costs as well as capital costs incurred at the outset.rnThis paper describes one such challenge for the initial stage in a proposed reprocessing process for high enriched uranium oxide and mixed oxide fuels. Such a process gives rise to fissile material in many different physical forms each with their own anomalous behaviour. The philosophy of the nuclear criticality safety control regime employed to ensure accurate modelling of this multiphase, mixed fissile system is described.