Nuclear power has been questioned almost since its beginnings and one of the major issues concerning its social acceptability around the world is nuclear waste management. In recent years, these issues have led to a rise in public opposition in some countries and, thus, nuclear energy has been facing even more challenges. However, continuous efforts in R&D (research and development) are resulting in new spent nuclear fuel (SNF) management technologies that might be the pathway towards helping the environment and the sustainability of nuclear energy. Thus, reprocessing and recycling of SNF could be one of the key points to improve the social acceptability of nuclear energy. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to review the state of the nuclear waste management technologies, its evolution through time and the future advanced techniques that are currently under research, in order to obtain a global vision of the nuclear fuel cycle strategies available, their advantages and disadvantages, and their expected evolution in the future.

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The objective of the present study is to compare the associated costs of long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel-open cycle strategywith the associated cost of reprocessing and recycling strategy of spent fuel-closed cycle strategy-based on the current international studies. The analysis presents cost trends for both strategies. Also, to point out the fact that the total cost of spent nuclear fuel management (open cycle) is impossible to establish at present, while the related costs of the closed cycle are stable and known, averting uncertainties.

The aim of the present paper is to present and analyse the results obtained from a comparative economic feasibility study performed for the two main nuclear spent fuel management cycles: Once-Through Cycle and Twice-Through Cycle in a Spanish scenario, taking into account the new Spanish legislation with which new tax provisions for generation and storage of nuclear waste must be included in the cycle costs.

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This study aims to analyze the economic and technical viability for either nuclear fuel reprocessing or permanent storage in Spain. Utilizing various international studies regarding nuclear fuel reprocessing, this study reaches an objective conclusion while taking into consideration the various variable and stable costs for the open and closed cycles. A sensitivity analysis was then introduced which identifies the most influential parameters in the final price. This analysis is essential in understanding the results obtained and emphasizes the need to specify a range of costs for both cycles and to see what factors affect these results. The sensitivity analysis describes the factors that play a large role in determining costs and will display the range of values that arise from the variability of costs for those factors. The uncertainty analysis compares the nominal values used in this study and describes how these values are likely to change with time resulting in a range of values for both cycles.

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