Sustainability and Proliferation Resistance Assessment of Open Cycle Thorium-Fuelled Nuclear Energy

c3b888c6-43ad-4ce0-a00c-c5d3f099308b

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EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC

£1,076,885

July 17, 2011

July 17, 2013

Uranium has been the fuel for the world's commercial nuclear power stations. Its reserves are, however, finite and the demands of planned Generation III 'New Build' reactors could consume much of the available supply. Options are available to increase nuclear fuel sustainability: developing novel extraction methods (e.g. uranium from sea water and phosphate mining); nuclear fuel can be reprocessed; fuel efficient fast reactors can be developed; or thorium, which is 3-4 times more abundant than uranium, can be adopted as an alternative fuel. This research considers key aspects of the thorium option.Historically a handful of commercial reactors have been fuelled in part by thorium. Due to economic drivers the cycle has not been adopted in contemporary commercial reactors. In the future this may change. Notably India, and in particular its Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, has pioneered the use of thorium and intends for it to form an integral part of its energy generation plans. Its Kakrapar-1 reactor has used fuels containing thorium and major new thorium fuel developments are underway.Fuel selection has an important effect on sustainability and proliferation resistance. India has given much attention to re-processing fuel cycles. We seek to assess an alternative, the open or 'once-through' cycle, against a range of criteria. The open cycle will be considered in two broad domains: sustainability and proliferation resistance. In both domains some metrics and assessment frameworks already exist. Discussions of nuclear energy sustainability are often dominated by considerations of fuel resource depletion; economic, social and environmental sustainability are not emphasised. We intend to take full consideration of the impacts of thorium use from mineral extraction, through processing and reactor use to the disposal of all associated waste materials. Proliferation metrics are less mature, but methodologies for quantifying risks of nuclear proliferation are being developed.The proposed research aims to assess, validate and improve metric frameworks for nuclear sustainability and proliferation resistance. It will culminate with the creation of a single unified assessment framework. This work is driven by examining the particular attributes of proposed open cycle thorium reactors. The research programme is formed via three key areas of work:1) A review of proliferation resistance and sustainability assessment methodologies, with emphasis on quantitative measurements; where necessary methods will be improved. An umbrella assessment framework will be developed encompassing proliferation resistance and sustainability allowing for a harmonised and directly comparable assessment of different reactor designs.2) A review of proposed open cycle thorium-fuelled nuclear reactor designs. The review will include identifying the front- and back-end fuel composition of the designs. It will emphasise sustainability and proliferation resistance characteristics by addressing their wider resource and emission consequences and identifying associated proliferation risks. Our work will advance proliferation assessment to go beyond the attributes of the fuel itself, to include consideration of the infrastructure context.3) The reviewed reactor designs will be assessed within the newly developed umbrella sustainability and proliferation resistance framework. The relative positive and negative features of each of the designs will be measured. These designs will also be compared to mature light water reactor technology.The research will directly provide an improved understanding of the costs and benefits of thorium as an energy source. The assessment framework will improve quantitative assessments of proliferation risks and nuclear sustainability. The framework will be disseminated to the wider global nuclear community allowing them better to select technologies for the benefit of local and international populations.

Potential Impact:
The UK nuclear industry: its long-term potential is limited by issues of environmental sustainability, resource depletion and economic competitiveness. Industrial competitiveness relies upon increasing export markets. The growth in nuclear-related exports must be reconciled with the joint demands of minimised environmental impact and ever more stringent proliferation prevention. To grow the industry requires an expanding supply of skilled and experienced workers and a research base sufficient to underpin technology development and increase receptivity to international innovations. HM Government: improved UK policy for global nuclear expansion and enhanced proliferation resistance - key departements: DECC, FCO and MOD. UK nuclear research and development institutions: most especially the National Nuclear Laboratory and National Nuclear Centre of Excellence. India: we seek to assist the development of safe and sustainable nuclear energy in South Asia for the benefit of local populations via the provision of affordable electricity and more widely for global populations via avoided carbon dioxide emissions. In so doing we are conscious that in the absence of UK enagagement India will continue to develop its nuclear infrastructure and may make avoidable detrimental choices, owing to a lack of broader expertise and insights. International organisations: such as the OECD - Nuclear Energy Agency, the European Atomic Energy Community 'EURATOM' and the UN International Atomic Energy Agency: we aim to assist these bodies via the development and dissemination of an Internationally Applicable Proliferation Resistance Assessment Tool (IAPRAT). This tool will be free of security sensitivities and be suitable for open international use. We will further develop an Intergrated Assessment Framework incorporating aspects of sustainability. We have excellent links to several key international nuclear organisations. For example, Dr Nuttall gave the policy keynote address at EURATOM's FISA 2009 conference held in Prague under the Czech EU Presidency. We stress the importance of nuclear power in possible moves to global electricity decarbonisation. It is a mature technology potentially able to play a substantial role in the decarbonisation, not only of electricity, but potentially of the global energy system. Equally, however, future generations must be kept safe from the risks of nuclear conflict and terrorist activity. Hazards posed by nuclear industries need to be recognised and mitigated at the earliest possible time. This work forms a small but important early step in reinvigorated British interest in such issues. In some sense the future could represent a trade-off of two global fears: the fear of anthropogenic climate change and the fear of nuclear proliferation. Countries, such as India (and China) are key to shaping such futures and this proposal is one way in which the UK can play a supporting role to India at a critical time. We are keen to work in coordination with the existing UK-India projects funded as a consequence of the 'Indo-UK Civil Nuclear Collaboration'. We are wholly supportive of the UK Strategic Export Controls programme and in no way seek to avoid or reduce those constraints. We are willing to see this proposal adjusted in response to the specific advice of those concerned with such things. We have structured the proposal with suffcient flexibility to allow us to make good progress while avoiding any and all issues of potential sensitivity.