Scenarios of nuclear energy for countries with different options of nuclear fuel cycle: Utilization and perspective

Countries around the world have made an international commitment to decrease the amount of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 according to the Paris Agreement. Among several power stations options of low carbon emissions, nuclear energy has been proved the most reliable source for electricity production. According to the sustainable development scenario targets, nuclear energy should play an important role in the next years for the decarbonization of the energy system. Countries with consolidated nuclear programmes such as Canada and the UK have similar nuclear fuel technology development, but they have chosen different nuclear fuel cycle options: open fuel cycle and closed fuel cycle, respectively. Both of them have future plans to continue with their nuclear programme. Therefore, this works evaluates the nuclear energy systems for three different scenarios for high, basic and low production of nuclear energy for both countries. The results compare the resources needs, the economy of the nuclear fuel cycle options, the policy of each country and the future of the nuclear power plants to achieve the reduction of the greenhouse gases. The main findings are that reprocessing is a good option for the UK for the whole or partial new nuclear fleet and becomes viable if the price of uranium increases in the market. For Canada, it is worth continuing to increase its nuclear energy up to 1.5 times its current energy capacity. The main difference between the programmes of the two countries is the higher amount of spent fuel generated in the case of Canada due to the choice of reactor technology. This paper has studied the main features of different nuclear fuel options and their perspective of the nuclear power programmes. The choice of the nuclear fuel option was made according to the uranium reserves and their best performance for the next reactor generation. The cost benefits of the closed fuel cycle will depend on the future trends of uranium price. [Display omitted] •Nuclear fuel options: Once-through cycle and closed fuel cycled.•UK and Canada nuclear energy system.•Spent nuclear fuel recycling and reprocessing.•Nuclear fuel cycle cost for open and closed fuel cycle.•Utilization of MOX in the next reactor generation.