The Initial Stage of Closing the NFC of the Russian Two-Component Nuclear Power Engineering System

The study proposes a stepwise scheme of the initial stage in the transition to a closed nuclear fuel cycle (NFC) two-component nuclear power engineering system comprising fast and thermal reactors. The closure of the NFC appears to be economically justified due to the envisaged construction of between six and nine BN-1200M fast neutron power units. Since no scarcity of plutonium is expected by 2031, the assumed year of commissioning the BN-1200M fast neutron reactor, it is expedient to defer the processing of spent plutonium fuel and instead store it into the middle of 2050s, reducing capital and fuel costs. However, it will be cost-effective to begin full-scale processing at centralized productions after 2050, since the expected quantity of spent fuel from fast reactors will by then be sufficient to achieve significant reductions in the specific cost of its processing.