Preliminary study on the nuclear fuel cycle scenarios of China

China has proposed the guideline to boost construction of nuclear power plant. The nuclear power capacity is expected to reach the scale of about 40 GWe in the year 2020 and keep growing in the further future. The development of nuclear power means not only the growth of nuclear power capacity but also the establishment of entire nuclear fuel cycle system, including uranium resource, spent fuel interim storage, reprocessing and radioactive waste final disposal. In the viewpoint of nuclear fuel cycle, with the construction and operation of more and more nuclear power plants Chinese nuclear industry will meet new questions and challenges. Based on the scheme of nuclear power development plan and technical route of China, four different nuclear fuel cycle scenarios are discussed in this paper. These scenarios include (1) UOX PWR once through (2) UOX fuel in PWR and mono-recycling Pu in MOX in thermal reactor (3) UOX fuel in PWR and multiple recycling in FR to burn Plutonium and MAs (4) UOX fuel in PWR and recycling reprocessed uranium in CANDU reactor. According to different scenarios the amount of natural uranium and separative work, the amount of spent fuel, depleted and reprocessed uranium together with the scale of nuclear fuel cycle facilities are calculated. (authors)