Comparison of the performance of optimal square, symmetric and asymmetric tapered cascades for production of enriched uranium for power reactors

•Using symmetric and asymmetric tapered cascades to produce uranium with varying enrichment levels for a power reactor requires dilution with natural or depleted uranium.•The production of uranium for power reactors requires fewer symmetric tapered cascades and gas centrifuges, with the highest separation capacity per gas centrifuge.•With a square cascade, no natural or depleted uranium is required to dilute the produced uranium.•Using square cascades, all enriched products are produced directly.•Because tapered cascades do not need to be adjusted during operation, they are easier to operate than square cascades.•The capability of the PSO algorithm was demonstrated for optimization of square, symmetric tapered, and asymmetric tapered cascades. In this research, the performance of the optimal asymmetric, symmetric tapered, and square cascades to provide enriched uranium for nuclear fuel production of two types of power reactors has been investigated. In this work, the software codes “SQC-PSOA”, “STC-PSOA”, and “ASTC-PSOA” have been developed to optimize the parameters of the square, symmetric, and asymmetric tapered cascades based on the PSO algorithm according to an objective function, respectively. The results show only square cascades with a single arrangement can directly provide all the enriched uranium required for the reactors. The symmetric and asymmetric tapered cascades can also indirectly provide all the enriched uranium by performing dilution operations with natural or depleted uranium. Furthermore, the results indicate reductions of 26–31% and 29–60% in the number of symmetric tapered cascades used compared to square and asymmetric tapered cascades for the annual production of the enriched uranium of a power reactor, respectively.