Handling spent (irradiated) fuel
Spent fuel is fuel that has been removed from a reactor.
Spent Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR) and Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) fuel elements are stored for long periods before final disposal.
Alternatively, if the fuel is left for a period (three years for AGR spent fuel or five years for PWR spent fuel), it can be reprocessed.
The 2008 White Paper, ‘Meeting the energy challenge’, states that any new nuclear power stations that might be built in the UK should proceed on the basis that spent fuel will not be reprocessed and that plans for, and financing of, waste management should proceed on this basis.
Reprocessing
Reprocessing of spent fuel involves the separation of uranium and plutonium from nuclear waste products by dissolving the fuel in nitric acid. The resulting materials are then stored. Commercial-scale reprocessing facilities currently exist in France, Russia, India and Japan, and at Sellafield in the UK.
Spent Magnox, Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR) and Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) fuel contains approximately 96% uranium, 3% nuclear waste products and 1%plutonium. Some of the nuclear waste products are highly radioactive. It is possible to recycle reprocessed uranium once it has been converted, enriched and fabricated into new AGR or PWR fuel elements.
Plutonium from reprocessing can be stored in accordance with international safety and security requirements, or combined with fresh uranium to form mixed oxide fuel known as MOX. MOX can be used as fuel for PWRs but is not currently used in the UK.
However, DECC has published for public scrutiny and consultation its paper setting out the Government’s proposed approach to the long-term management of the UK’s plutonium stocks, which includes the option of reusing plutonium in new build reactors in the UK.
The Government is not currently expecting any proposals to reprocess spent fuel from new nuclear power stations. Should such proposals come forward in the future, they would need to be considered on their merits at the time.