Document: NUREG-1555
Document ID: e6522906-ea8a-4279-a417-3ba3eec01014
Document Type: esrp
Title: URANIUM FUEL CYCLE IMPACTS
Source: NUREG-1555
Source URL: https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1555/initial/
Revision Date: 2007-10
Chapter: 5
Section ID: 5.7
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Content:
w- and high-level wastes. These are described in the AEC report WASH-1248 (AEC 1974). Specific categories of natural resource use are included in Table S-3 of the rule. These categories relate to land use, water consumption and thermal effluents, radioactive releases, burial of transuranic and high- and low-level wastes, and radiation doses from transportation and occupational exposures. The contributions in Table S-3 for reprocessing, waste management, and transportation of wastes are maximized for either of the two fuel cycles (uranium only and no recycle); that is, the cycle that results in the greater impact is used. The uranium fuel cycle is defined as the total of those operations and processes associated with provision, utilization, and ultimate disposition of fuel for nuclear-power reactors. Originally, two fuel cycle options were considered, which differed in the treatment of spent fuel removed from a reactor. “No recycle” treats all spent fuel as waste to be stored at a Federal waste repository; “uranium only recycle” involves reprocessing of spent fuel to recover unused uranium and return it to the system. Neither cycle involves the recovery of plutonium. Since there is no longer any consideration of reprocessing spent fuel, only the no-recycle option is considered here. It is schematically presented in Figure 5.7-A-1. Natural uranium is mined in either open-pit or underground mines. The ore is transferred to mills where it is processed to produce uranium oxide or “yellow-cake.” A conversion facility prepares the uranium oxide from the mills for enrichment by converting it to uranium hexafluoride (UF6), which is then processed to separate the relatively nonfissile isotope U-238 from the more fissile isotope U-235. At a fuel-fabrication facility, the enriched uranium, approximately 3% U-235, is then converted to UO2. The UO2 is pelletized, sintered, and inserted into tubes to form fuel assemblies. The fuel assemblies are placed in the reactor