Spent uranium recycling strategy in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Large-scale development of nuclear power in the USSR has been always inseparable from creation of an industrial infrastructure using a closed fuel cycle, commissioning of BN-type fast reactors and gradual transition to a self-sufficient power production regime. Still, the reality of energy development has required some revision of the present conceptions for the closed fuel cycle with the stress on utilizing spent uranium and plutonium in thermal reactors. The paper considers some economic criteria concerning the viability of transition to the closed uranium fuel cycle, investigates the changes in the isotopic spent uranium composition as well as influence of 236U and 232U isotopes on the fuel recycling technology in principle. Some variants of the fuel recycling systems have been discussed. (author). 15 refs, 4 figs, 3 tabs