Research on irradiated fuel management and recycle in BNFL

The demand for energy, and electricity in particular, in the twenty-first century will grow significantly. Power must be generated both at an affordable cost and with minimum impact on the environment. The Nuclear Industry can help to meet these needs. In order to maintain and improve its competitive position, the Nuclear Industry is developing new and improved technologies to respond to these demands. BNFL - as a leading fuel cycle company - is at the forefront of this development. This paper reviews how BNFL selects and develops the technologies needed to support its twenty-first century business requirements and how BNFL aims to maintain the recycling of irradiated fuel as the preferred option for customers. Some of the specific research programmes that BNFL is currently undertaking to meet future challenges are also discussed. These include both improvements to existing processes and novel methods for creating and separating radioactive materials. These programmes will lead to the simpler processes, minimised waste arisings and still provide inherent or demonstrable safety, and methods for the minimisation of wastes. The matching of technology capability to market demands is very important. These include future potential developments within nuclear power, (e.g. advanced reactor systems, including fast reactor systems, and partition and transmutation systems) as well as developments which may be of use from other industries (e.g. information technology). In addition there is an increasingly recognised need to integrate and simplify the whole of the nuclear fuel cycle. i. e. fuel manufacture, power generation, fuel reprocessing and waste disposal. Some of the options for this are outlined in this paper