Uranium need for Romanian nuclear energy development

At this moment Romania is the owner of a CANDU NPP (designed for 5 units, 650 MW each) with a unit in operation, another one under commissioning and three in different building stages. The premises for a very good evolution of the nuclear energy are promising. The Government sustains the nuclear energy development through the National Nuclear Program, which is now a Law. The technical expertise for nuclear energy exists and it is continuously developing. A departmental Research, Development an Innovation Program is sustained by Romanian Authority for Nuclear Activities (RAAN) covering almost all directions in the nuclear field. An important direction of the Research, Development and Innovation Program is the development of an advanced fuel bundle, similar with the Canadian CANFLEX, being a carrier for different types of fissile materials in accordance with the fuel cycles associated to CANDU Reactors: NU (Natural Uranium), SEU (Slightly Enriched Uranium), RU (Recovered Uranium), MOX (Mixed Oxide), DUPIC (Direct use of LWR spent fuel in CANDU Reactor). The flexibility of CANDU 6 Reactor permits the conversion from the natural Uranium fuel cycle to the slightly enriched Uranium or recovered Uranium fuel cycles. The expected results are the burnup increase and the decrease of the high level waste (spent fuel) amounts. As function of the power supply needs, the political climate and the Uranium Reserve, different reactor scenarios can be accepted. In a table some scenarios are presented. All scenarios propose the commissioning of 3 units CANDU (NU fuel cycle) up to 2012 and this is realistic. The pessimistic scenario S1 presumes the conversion of 2 CANDU 6 Reactor from natural Uranium to slightly enriched Uranium or recovered Uranium up to 2020 and no other investments. The medium scenarios up to 2025 are the following: two CANDU 6 Reactor to be converted for SEU/RU fueling and an advanced CANDU reactor to be commissioned (S2) or two CANDU 6 Reactor to be converted for SEU/RU fueling and two advanced PWR to be commissioned (S3). The optimistic scenario (S4) proposes another advanced CANDU Reactor up to 2025 comparatively with S3 scenario. Following the reactor scenarios, the Uranium need for the reactors fueling is presented. The estimation of uranium quantities was realized using following data: - The CANDU 6 Reactor is refueled with 98.4tU/year of natural Uranium; - The CANDU 6 Reactor converted to SEU/RU fuel is refueled with 44.51tU/year of SEU/RU; - An APWR (600Mwe) is refueled with 30tU/years having enrichment 2-4% U235. For all scenarios the maximum quantity of the natural Uranium need for nuclear fuel manufacturing is foerseen for 2012 when three CANDU reactor units are commissioned. Knowing that the maximum capacities of the OU2 Sinterable Powder Plant Feldioara Brasov and Nuclear Fuel Plant Pitesti is about 200tU/year it appears necessary to increase the manufacturing capacities of both plants up to 250tU/year. After 2015, the quantities of natural Uranium decrease slowly up to 2025. From 2015, the conversion of a CANDU Reactor from natural Uranium to slightly enriched Uranium (using an advanced fuel as fissile material carrier) induces new problems. The slightly enriched Uranium (0.9%-1.2% U235) can be obtained by mixing high enriched Uranium (19% U235) and natural Uranium. But, recovered Uranium resulted from reprocessing of LWR spent fuel, having the same enrichment 0.9%-1.2% U235 (dependent on in reactor operation conditions), is a very good opportunity to be used in the CANDU 6 and in the Advanced CANDU Reactors. The use of recovered Uranium in SEU/RU converted CANDU 6 Reactors is agreed in Romania because in Europe a large quantity of recovered Uranium is in the stock-piles. Under these circumstances we estimate a very low price for that. The APWR reactors commissioned after 2020 (S3 and S4 scenarios) need 2-4% U235 enriched Uranium. This material will be imported. The problem is if we will import UO2 powder and the fuel will be manufactured in Romania or we will import directly fuel manufactured outside. An estimation of the uranium costs in connection with the scenarios presented in. The annual Uranium cost in connection with the reactor scenarios was calculated using the following data: - 9.84 M$/year for NU fuel cycle; - 5.45 M$/year for SEU fuel cycle; - 4.45 M$/year for SEU fuel cycle; - 26 M$/year for APWR