Romanian program for SEU/RU fuel manufacturing at nuclear site Pitesti

Increasing burnup allows a utility to get the same kWh output with a reduced tonnage of fissile material. This provides a saving not only in the cost of fuel fabrication but also in the cost of disposal of the spent fuel. The cost of disposal of spent fuel is two to four times higher than that of fuel fabrication. Recovered Uranium (RU) Cycle is a way to improve Slightly Enriched Uranium (SEU) from LWR spent fuel processing. Uranium from LWR spent fuel reporcessing contains 0.9 - 1.2% U-235 (depending on the fuel history: reprocessing, burnup, reactor type) compared to 0.72% U-235 in natural Uranium. An international collaboration between Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) and British Nuclear Fuel plc (BNFL) was established to use RU