INFCE Review. Pt. A

The starting-points of the International Fuel Cycle Evaluation (INFCE) are summarized and compared to the present status and requirements of the future. The main topics of INFCE were non proliferation and exhaustion of resources. The technological discussion was consequently focused on plutonium recycle. Reprocessing and recycling are also key-concepts of technologies presently under study for reduction of long lived radioactive waste from the nuclear fuel cycle. This part A presents backgrounds and starting points of INFCE, and discusses at some detail four main fuel cycles: the LWR once-through fuel cycle, the LWR uranium-plutonium cycle, the FBR uranium-plutonium cycle and the HTR thorium-uranium cycle. (orig./HP)