Steady-State Subchannel Thermal-Hydraulic Assessment of Proposed Thorium Fuel Designs

Dominguez, A. Nava; Rao, Y.F.

doi:10.1080/00295450.2018.1442085

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 7 publications

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“…This concept and others [175,176], may have fuel costs lower than natural uranium fuel. Future work can build on these results by providing more comprehensive estimated life cycle costs and consider a comparison to additional fuel concepts, which can also meet operational safety needs [177][178][179][180][181].…”

Section: Developing More Economical Thorium-based Fuel Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Canadian Perspective of the Economic Issues Associated With Deploying Thorium-Based Fuel Cycles and Breeding in Heavy-Water Reactors

España

Bromley

2019

CNL Nuclear Review

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To meet future global needs for energy and green technology, it is prudent to identify energy sources and technology that may potentially be economically beneficial. Thorium-based fuels with nuclear technology, such as the Canadian heavy-water reactor, have been proposed as a way to meet those global needs, though economic challenges persist in deploying thorium-based fuels. Therefore, economic strategies to overcome the economic challenges in deploying thorium-based fuels are needed. To identify potential strategies for advancing the deployment of thorium-based fuels, this paper conducts a historical examination of the economics of thorium fuel cycles to identify economic factors that can influence a country’s development of thorium-based fuel cycles. In particular, this paper reviews the economic issues associated with Canada’s experience in deploying thorium-based fuel cycles. The study finds that the existence of natural resources and the associated price, a nuclear fuel cycle’s costs, a country’s international trade balance position and economic growth policies, the profitability of the electrical power and nuclear industry, and the technical and economical characteristics of the nuclear reactor developed in a country may all influence the adoption of a thorium-based fuel cycle. Furthermore, recent advancements in developing thorium-based fuel cycles are suggested as a possible way of bridging the technical and economic gap between near-term and long-term implementation of thorium-based fuel cycles that may overcome current economic challenges.

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